It may seem like a small thing, but the GOP plan boosts individual health savings accounts by nearly doubling the contribution limits and it gives people more flexibility in how they can spend money in those accounts. This might be the best part of their plan.

Whether it's health care, education, or almost anything else important in a society, that society breaks down unless individuals and families take at least some personal responsibility to procure, promote, and preserve those essentials. Health care is probably the best example of this important truth because it's not only about making sure you have access to and can afford good care. A responsible person will also eat right, exercise, and get regular checkups.

Health savings accounts, which allow people to save money tax free to pay for expected and unexpected health care costs, are an excellent tool to reward and enhance personal responsibility. And they don't only work for the rich or the middle class.

President Trump's nominee to run Medicare and Medicaid, Seema Verma, actually implemented a plan in Indiana that allowed and encouraged poor Medicaid enrollees to set aside as little as a few dollars a month for their own personal health savings accounts.

Hoosiers who did so got some of their medical care for free so their accounts wouldn't be drained by the costs of routine care. The point of all these HSA's is not only economic; they also promote that positive personal responsibility message as opposed to a message of undefined and/or unending entitlement.

Predictably, the big government forces behind Obamacare took a lot of the air out of HSA's and Verma's plan in Indiana was almost killed off by the ACA before a compromise deal was made with the White House. Indiana says this plan, which began in 2008, produced better economic and medical results than traditional Medicaid.

The state's own figures say Hoosiers who participated in the plan made more regular visits to doctors for primary and preventive care. They also logged lower emergency room usage, stayed on their medications at a better rate, and missed fewer medical appointments.

It's important to note that nobody thinks HSA's are a "big picture" answer to all the economic challenges of health care costs. But they do provide an extremely positive tone to fight back against an entitlement culture that encourages abuse, neglect, and out-of-control costs.

When it comes to policy, the inherent message is often just as important as the implemented details. And the message for years has been all about what the government or society owes the people when it comes to health care. We haven't heard much about what the people owe themselves and society. A government that willfully abdicates some of its power in order to promote personally-managed entities like health savings accounts is a government that is actually putting the people first.