Brian Blase, Ph.D., is the President of Paragon Health Institute. Brian was Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy at the White House’s National Economic Council (NEC) from 2017-2019, where he coordinated the development and execution of numerous health policies and advised the President, NEC director, and senior officials. After leaving the White House, Brian founded Blase Policy Strategies and served as its CEO.
Vance Is Right on Health Care
Republican vice-presidential candidate J. D. Vance is under fire for saying that Americans should have more options for their health coverage and that one-size-fits-all approaches that force all Americans into the same insurance pool can be improved upon.
Proposals to improve the status quo should be welcomed, given the deep underlying problems with the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The policies that Donald Trump pursued as president both improved the ACA and provided people with options for better coverage — showing that it is possible to do both. The reforms recommended by Senator Vance would protect people with preexisting conditions and give people better health-coverage options, aims that are not mutually exclusive.
The ACA made the individual market less like health insurance (in which people don’t know whether they will get sick or have an injury in a given period, so they buy insurance, and the premiums of those who don’t get sick or have injuries cover the costs of those who do) and more like an extremely expensive high-risk pool that stays afloat only with massive government subsidies.
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