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“.........The ideas are out there.

John Cochrane at the University of Chicago has explained how much of what is “wrong” with the healthcare system is, in fact, the product of existing federal law. Why is your insurance tied to your employer and not portable? Why can’t you buy a policy across state lines? Because Federal law says so. Many of the liberal bugbears, like the lack of portability and the pre-existing condition problem, are the consequences of outdated federal laws. Democrats’ solution: federal control of healthcare. Republican solution; get rid of the outdated laws; make targeted accommodations for the truly needy. Who wins that one?

Sally Pipes at the Pacific Research Institute has outlined a seven-point replacement agenda for Obamacare: (1) let people buy health insurance with pre-tax dollars; (2) expand Health Savings Accounts; (3) allow the purchase of insurance across state lines; (4) fund high-risk pools - allowing coverage for those with pre-existing conditions without raising others’ premiums; (5) eliminate federal electronic records mandates; (6) scrap federal “essential” benefits mandates; and (7) promote tort reform at the state level.

Add Pipes’ elements (1)-(6) and Cochrane’s elimination of federally imposed market distortions on the health insurance market, and you have a plan that could be written into law on the first day of the 114th Congress.

Now, who will be the messenger? During the 2012 presidential campaign, Democrats had Paul Ryan pushing granny off a cliff for suggesting market-based reforms to Medicare. I doubt the efficacy of that attack now that the Pied Piper Obama has led so many Americans, who thought they could keep their plans, over a cliff of his own. But Paul Ryan has the budget to deal with now, and the Republican opposition looks sadly lacking in compelling national leadership, unwilling or unable to take the offensive and present a crisp alternative.

So, now what do we do? And who’s going to do it?”