USA TODAY International Edition
DEMOCRATS’ BEST BET: SIMPLICITY
Life shouldn’t be so complicated. That’s a winning agenda for the party that owns it.
Afew weeks ago, we saw the beginnings of a potential Democratic stampede toward supporting Medicare for All. It is a deeply meaningful moment for health policy, but these proposals could be the start of something even more significant: the remodeling of the Democratic Party as the party of “life shouldn’t be this complicated.”
Let’s face it, modern life can be exhausting. Despite progress, tens of millions of Americans are worried about their prospects in an unstable economy. Even those who are doing well can find themselves overwhelmed by caring for loved ones or managing life’s daily challenges. Navigating byzantine processes, oceans of paperwork and overwhelming arrays of choices designed to confuse consumers are the last things they want to worry about. Democrats should embrace the vital role government can play in making life less stressful.
Health care is the front line of this battle. Our system is, to put it charitably, a confusing, draining mess. Even with the major improvements brought by the Affordable Care Act (ACA), shopping for a plan involves too many dimensions to allow for meaningful comparison.
The Republican vision focuses on deregulation, leaving Americans on their own against massive insurance companies. GOP proposals have hidden this approach within a Trojan horse of federalism: If enacted, states would be allowed to eliminate many of the basic standards of coverage the ACA created.
Republicans say this approach will let each American pick the plan that best meets his or her needs. But in reality, the main outcome will be more work and worry for consumers. Denied a core set of guaranteed benefits, they will have to evaluate potentially dozens of plans for coverage of maladies and treatments both common and rare. Even ignoring how these changes would hurt the sickest and poorest Americans, it’s a massive workload for little benefit.
NOT JUST HEALTH CARE
Democrats would be wise to run harder in the opposite direction, laying out a vision for a world that is not just morally superior, but also simpler and less stressful. Medicare for All would dramatically reduce complexity by creating an easy-to-use health insurance plan.
Many of the details of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All proposal should be studied, debated and refined. But the thrust toward simplicity is the right approach, and it should not stop at health care. Retirement policy offers another promising area for frustration-reducing reform.
According to the Pew Charitable Trusts, more than one in three Americans over 22 lack access to any retirement plan at work; the options to save individually are more limited and can be more complicated to use. But even those who can participate in employer-based plans often face high administrative costs and a dizzying set of investment choices. Overall, Pew found, fewer than half of Americans participate in an employer plan.
Democrats have a ready-made opportunity to improve saving for retirement by making it easier: the federal Thrift Savings Plan. The retirement plan of senators and civil service employees alike, the TSP offers a limited but excellent selection of investment funds at a cost that virtually no private-sector plans can replicate. Opening up this program to the public and enrolling people automatically would make it dramatically easier to save for retirement.
A Democratic simplicity agenda would also require an aggressive focus on how Americans interact with their government. Opportunities to simplify abound there too. Just take taxes.
Today, income tax season involves a shared national ritual of aggravation. But much of this suffering is unnecessary. The IRS has almost all the information needed to pre-fill income tax returns for most Americans, who could review and simply sign if all the information was correct. A pilot project in California was a stunning success.
WHAT MATTERS MOST
Democrats could doubtless identify many other such opportunities to make life’s most complicated tasks more manageable and make it easier for Americans to deal with their government. In many cases, the legislation even exists already — the biggest gaps are a unifying story, a shared sense of urgency and the political consensus to get it done.
Working demanding jobs, raising a family, cultivating friendships, and engaging in a loving community are work enough for anybody. Democrats have an opportunity to fight for policies that make it easier for all Americans to focus on what really matters most.
Alexander C. Hart is a project director at Freedman Consulting, LLC, a philanthropic and political strategy firm in Washington, D.C.