One thing I really don't like about the health care debate is the "complexity test". After Clinton's health care plan failed, in part due to its monstrous incomprehensibility, folks began quickly dismissing anything that hints at being hard to explain. Unfortunately, health care is a tough issue and the policy solutions may end up taking a few sentences. Because of that, we on the left should be trying to make these things seem simple to understand, not bolstering the idea that a solution has to fit on a flash card. So, for instance, if you're ever asked about CAP's health plan, don't say it's too complicated to ever be understood. Say instead that:
• The whole country could buy into FEHBP, which is the menu of insurance options Congress uses;
• People making less than 150% of the poverty line would be eligible for Medicaid;
• Private insurance would still exist for those who wanted it;
• And it'd be funded through a small VAT tax, which is a sort of sales tax that every other country in the developed world has.
It's not my favorite solution in the world, but it's certainly explainable. if it ever gets near a legislators pen, then we can worry about the cost caps and preventive care spending and all the other tiny edges and bits that make policy so byzantine. Until then, there's your flash card.
