The Trigger scam

Opinion Journal:

President Obama has decided that another oration will rejuvenate his health-care agenda—despite having given 27 speeches entirely on health care, and another 92 in which it figured prominently. We'll see how tomorrow night's Congressional appeal works out, but the important maneuvers are taking place in the cloak rooms, as the White House tries to staple together a majority.

The latest political gimmick is the notion of a "trigger" for the public option: A new government program for the middle class would only come on line if private insurance companies fail to meet certain benchmarks, such as lowering overall health spending or shrinking the number of the uninsured. This is supposed to appeal to Maine Republican Olympia Snowe, who could end up as ObamaCare's 60th Senator, while still appeasing the single-payer left.

Liberals should love the idea because a trigger isn't a substantive concession; it merely ensures that the public option will arrive eventually, instead of immediately. Democrats will goose the tests so that private insurers can't possibly meet them, mainly by imposing new regulations and other costly burdens.

Keep in mind that every version of ObamaCare now under consideration essentially turns all private insurers into subsidiaries of Congress. All coverage will be strictly regulated down to the fine print, and politics will dictate the level of benefits as well as premiums, deductibles and copays. Under the House bill, a "health choices commissioner" will have the final say, no doubt with Democrats Henry Waxman and Pete Stark at his elbow, if not another part of his anatomy.

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There is more.

The best way to counter this scam is to offer triggers that will kill the bill if it does not achieve certain specific objectives. One killer trigger would roll back the legislation if it turns out to be less than revenue neutral. In other words if it increases the deficit the legislation would be automatically repealed. Would Democrats agree to that trigger? The derisive laughter they heard at the Town Hall meetings when they claimed the bill would be revenue neutral suggest such a trigger would be important to voters.

Another trigger would result if voters lost their current coverage as a result of the bill. Obama has said if you like what you got you can keep it, Then why not make the failure to meet that pledge a repeal trigger?