Jonathan Cohn in the New Republic has this unintentional joke in his discussion of Hillary Clinton's 1990's health care proposal.
Clinton had embraced a model of reform known by the clunky moniker "managed competition." Its premise was that it made sense to rely on private insurance as the primary source of coverage for working Americans, just as had always been the case in this country. But, in order to make coverage affordable to everybody, government had to restructure the insurance business.
Okay, now I get it. Private health insurance that is managed by the government! In fact that was exactly the genius of Ms. Clinton's proposal: it would look like private insurance, but would in fact be managed from above. That way, whenever the premiums needed to be raised (and that would be often), and the benefits cut (almost as often), greedy bankers would get the blame. Congress would then come riding to the rescue. It might work, if Congress were disciplined enough. It wouldn't be. Riding to the rescue would just be too much fun, and the system would soon join social security as the next big disaster on the horizon. Still, you have to admit the stroke of genius.
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