Ted Cruz could transform Obamacare debate by offering true alternative

The Texas Republican catapulted himself to the national political stage through his fierce opposition to President Obama’s healthcare law – but he hasn’t offered his own detailed alternative. In other words, like his party, when it comes to healthcare, Cruz is known much more by what he’s against than what he’s for.

Were he to present a detailed market-based alternative, it would transform the nature of the healthcare policy debate and also bolster his presidential campaign.

To start, it’s worth pointing out that last month, Cruz did introduce a bill known as the Health Care Choices Act that was pitched as an alternative to Obamacare. But beyond repealing much of Obamacare, it did very little to change healthcare system.

The only reform to the pre-Obamacare status quo in the legislation is a provision that would allow insurance to be purchased across state lines. That would be a step toward a market-based system, but wouldn’t go nearly far enough.

A central barrier to the creation of a true free market for healthcare is that in the United States, Americans are left with very limited control over their own healthcare dollars. Because they’re insulated from the cost of medical care by the government or their employers, they have little incentive to shop around for the most cost-effective care, and even if they wanted to, healthcare prices remain so opaque that typical consumers wouldn’t know where to start if they wanted to seek out affordable care.

This is a problem that Obamacare made worse, but it’s one that existed before Obamacare and that would remain even if the law were fully repealed.

As I detailed in my book, Overcoming Obamacare, there are no shortage of plans on the right for moving the healthcare system in a more market-oriented direction, but Republicans have had trouble rallying around a single vision, and that’s fed the perception that they aren’t for anything. In the past, this has been a historical problem both for Republicans, and conservatism as a whole.

When Bill and Hillary Clinton’s national healthcare effort went down in flames in 1994, instead of using this as an opportunity to advance free market ideas, conservatives went back to not caring about healthcare policy. Liberals, meanwhile, licked their wounds, learned lessons, and plotted for their next opening to expand government – which they did when Obama came to office. If Republicans merely advocate repealing Obamacare, then it’s more likely than not that the government role in healthcare will continue to grow on auto pilot. And Democrats will just wait for their next opening to expand Obamacare and move the system further toward the fully government-run, or single-payer, system they’ve desired all along.

One of the biggest barriers for conservatives rallying around a free market healthcare plan is simply that healthcare reform has never been a cause that’s been as passionate for conservatives as others, such as immigration, taxes or gun rights.

That’s where Cruz could come in. Cruz has emerged as an influential figure among grassroots conservatives. Were he to make not just repealing Obamacare, but advocating for a specific market-based reforms, a central part of his run for president — mentioning those reforms in ads and in campaign stops — it would change the nature of the healthcare debate as it has existed.

It would go a long way toward convincing conservatives that opposing Obamacare is not enough. And if the man who has perhaps emerged as Obamacare’s most identifiable critic starts talking seriously about alternatives, it would help change how Republicans are perceived on this issue.

For now, a spokesman for the Cruz campaign told me that Cruz is evaluating various alternatives to Obamacare.

If he detailed an alternative vision on healthcare, Cruz would also change the perception of his own candidacy.

Despite his obvious intellect, to this point in his political career, Cruz has been more associated with fighting against Obama and Republican leaders than in presenting solution’s to the nation’s problems. If he wants to make a serious run for president, he’s going to have to show that he’s more than a one-trick pony – that he actually has serious ideas about what he would do on matters of policy.

Were he to play this kind of constructive role in the healthcare debate, he’d emerge as a much more serious challenger for the nomination.