Health Care Reform

Sen McConnell, (R?-maybe) has gotten on the "Repeal and Replace" bandwagon, at least partially in an interview with the National Review. Repeal and replace always makes me nervous as this sort of implies the RINO making the pledge is suggesting that he could run the nationalized health care system better than the Dems, which is decidedly NOT what I'm looking for.

He says he doesn't want to give away the playbook before the elections, but then lists highlights of the game plan that pretty well signal his intentions.

There won’t be a 2,700-page Republican alternative. What the majority did in 2009 and 2010 was take a meat axe to the American health-care system. What we should have done is take out a scalpel and go step by step to make some adjustments. Among the things that we’ve mentioned is interstate health-insurance competition, which is not there today; medical-malpractice reform, to try to deal with the issue of defensive medicine. These are targeted approaches that tackle the cost of health care, which is what Obamacare completely failed to address.

Suggesting that the otherwise laudable reforms can be done by taking a scalpel to the existing bill is hogwash.  Removing any part of the healthcare bill will be fought tooth and nail by the Dems, and anything that isn't outright stated as a tax, is protected by the filibuster rules in the Senate, so repeal is pretty unlikely.

The reforms he is proposing are what should have been done in the first place, but shorting the trial lawyers and denting in-state insurance monopolies is an attack on the Dems base and will be bitterly opposed as well.  The Senator proposes a good result. I eagerly await his actual game plan.