'Perfect' is enemy of good health care bill

As Senate Republicans, House Republicans and the Trump administration debate the emerging Republican plan to extract America from the ObamaCare death spiral, there is a fixation on finding and implementing a "perfect" plan.

Memo to Republicans - the enemy of improvement is the misguided pursuit of perfection.

The most salient piece of information that ought to guide the Republican deliberations is that there is NO legislative requirement nor a moral imperative to pass a "perfect bill." To become mired in the pursuit of a perfect bill is to ignore that no single piece of legislation can possibly right every wrong in the ObamaCare legislation or anticipate and remedy its lingering effects in an evolving marketplace.

Pause for a moment and consider this -- there were at least 70 changes made to ObamaCare.

This information was presented in a paper published by the Galen Institute on Jan. 28, 2016. The author of the document was Grace Marie Turner. Ms Turner notes that the Obama Administration itself side-stepped Congress and made 43 changes through either executive fiat or regulation changes. Congress then passed another 24 changes, and finally, the Supreme Court made three changes by way of its rulings.

My advice is simple - the American people will not forget the momentous occasion the Republicans have will have squandered IF they fail to get a health bill on President Trump's desk this summer.

The Republican bill does not have to be perfect out of the gate, but it does have to "get out of the gate."

Dale Plautz

Round Lake