I actually find it to be a very good plan. Except I strongly disagree with one particular part of the article.
The main flaw in Price's plan is the danger it poses to employer-provided coverage. He would let people with such coverage use their new tax credit to buy their own health insurance on the individual market. If young and healthy people find better bargains on that market, they might leave employer plans with only older and sicker insurance pools. Thus employer premiums could go up, or employer plans could go under.
That's not going to fly, and it shouldn't. The federal government shouldn't disrupt people's health-insurance arrangements so drastically. The solution is to restrict the tax credit, at least at first, so that it only goes to people who don't have access to employer coverage.
What? Bullshit. The credit should be available to everyone. If people can find better coverage outside employer plans, let them! What do you think happened before Obamacare? If the insurance company wants to keep people in the employer plans, they need to provide a product that is valuable to consumers on its own merits. Making the tax credit available to only people who don't have access to health insurance through their jobs 1) make it government alms as opposed to a public healthcare policy, and 2) reinforces the twisted and backwards notion that health insurance is supposed to be tied to your job. Nothing could be further from the truth, and the health insurance market would be more consumer friendly if this false association were finally broken. Not only that, but continuing that premise only serves to keep freedom in the market limited in an insurer friendly manner.
