HillaryCare 2.0

The Clinton campaign finally releases their health care plan proposal. As usual, the place to go for comprehensive coverage of this is Casa de Ezra, see for instance here, here, and here.

I am excited by the meat of the proposal. It's good. It's really good. When the worst thing Ezra can say about your proposal is that 'it doesn't go as far as this plan I like, which is better although it has absolutely no chance politically of passing,' you've come up with a pretty damn progressive health care plan.

Do I wish we could just bypass the for-profit insurance industry, and at the minimum provide government-supplied basic health insurance for every American? Absolutely. But you don't get there in a single step, that's just not how the world works. And I wouldn't want it to, because we really don't know what shape some optimal social insurance scheme would take. Much better to provide lots of options, and see which ones work best for which people. The best ideas will bubble to the top and can be implemented across the system.

As for the horserace, I don't really see a good alley for Edwards or Obama or anyone else to sneak past Hillary and get the Dem's nomination in '08. She's too solid of a politician, with too many built-in advantages. Plus, moves like this show that she is good at keeping a finger in the wind and knows when it's time to lurch to the center, such as on Iraq and defense policy, and when it's time to run left, such as on health care. If she can keep co-opting her opponents' best ideas, she can defuse any attack they might try to level that would open up a chink in her armor.

Will Hillary fight as hard for her plan as President Edwards would for his? Almost certainly not. But given that the alternatives are Rudy 'Iraq! 9/11! Liberal Communist Socialized Health Care!' Giuliani and Mitt 'I disavow anything I said or did while running for or serving in office in Massachutsetts' Romney, I'll take Hillary's plan any day of the week, and twice on Sundays.