Memo to the president: How to win on health care

Memo to the President

Topic: Totally awesome reset of your presidency

Date: Right here, right now!

From: the original Jared

Mr. President, forgive me if I don't engage in groveling about your greatness. After all, your approval ratings are in the tank, you haven't posted any legislative wins, and you're being partially blamed for the latest flop: the health-care debacle.

As even you surely now see, both health care and governing, as in working with Congress — even your own party — are really hard.

But I've got a powerful, simple idea that I strongly believe will reset all of the above. It will give you a huge legislative win, add many points to your approval rating, and reverse both the chatter about your doomed presidency and the sense that you're in way over your head and have no clue how to help the folks who helped elect you.

[Murkowski, Sullivan hope for path forward on failed health care bill]

Here it is: In a televised speech to the nation ASAP, announce you've had a complete change of heart on health care and you want to work with anyone who will take what we have in place and make it work better for millions of Americans.

Yes, this is a major flip. But so what!? That's your brand. If anything, it's what you do best. Surprise everyone, drive the media nuts, make the liberals deal with it, and don't worry about the base.

They love you no matter what, and again, they particularly enjoy when you take surprising positions. Added bonus: Annoy McConnell and Ryan!

Here's your speech:

America, I hear you. You want the better, cheaper coverage that I promised you all along. Clearly, we've not yet been able to deliver that to you. But if you think we're done, you're wrong. We're just getting started.

Today, I'm working with Congress to form a joint committee of Democrats and Republicans who want to stop screwing around and deliver the health care that people need and want.

It's now clear that we have to get there from here. We're going to have to work with what we've got. If we were starting fresh, believe me, it wouldn't be with "Obamacare." But that's just what we're starting with. I guarantee you, it's not what we're going to be ending with."

The joint committee will have three members from each party and each chamber whose job will be to come up with bipartisan solutions that can get a majority vote in the House and filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.

Their first job will be to stabilize the nongroup insurance markets across America to ensure access and affordability. I'll start by announcing here and now that insurers can count on the cost-sharing payments that help keep copays and deductibles down for low-income enrollees.

My bipartisan commission will follow up with ways to get more insurers back into the mix in places where markets are too thin. Then the commission will make sure the premium subsidies are adequate to give less well-off people the help they need.

Surely, one way to get our insurers solidly back in the game is to give them the stable policy environment they've always lacked. I'm a businessman, and America hired me to get its business in order. So let me tell you that private insurers can't function if the political system is constantly ratcheting up the policy uncertainty.

[At White House meeting, Trump chides Senate Republicans on health care bill]

These last few weeks have been a nightmare in that regard, but guess what, America? We're waking up from the nightmare of uncertainty. From here on in, there's no more repeal and there's no replace.

There's no more delay, no more last-minute "scores" from budget wonks, no more nail-biter votes, no more secret bills, no more lurching around with the 18 percent of our economy that people depend on for their health.

There's no more of that nonsense. In it's place, there's just affordable, quality health care, where everyone, regardless of pre-existing conditions, gets covered with guaranteed, essential benefits.

And let me end with this (this bit will really shock 'em). Hear me, America and especially Congress. If we can't work together to figure out how to achieve the goals that I set out here today, then I'm going to propose a single payer health-care system: "Medicare for All!"

OK, Mr. President, maybe that last part is a reach for you, but the other stuff would, I guarantee you, be a huge win and just the turnaround you need right now.

Snatch victory from defeat! Then kick back (at Mar-a-Lago) and watch a surprised, grateful, and somewhat confused nation deal with the new you.

Jared Bernstein, a former chief economist to Vice President Joe Biden, is a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and author of the new book "The Reconnection Agenda: Reuniting Growth and Prosperity."

The views expressed here are the writer's and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary@alaskadispatch.com. Send submissions shorter than 200 words to letters@alaskadispatch.com.