The left pioneered creeping socialism. Let the right pioneer incremental freedom.

In the wake of the Obamacare debacle, one of the more useful suggestions out there for the always failing GOP comes from, of all people, Hillary Clinton. John Merline at Investor's Business Daily urges the Republicans to take a lesson from the former first lady, who, back when she was unable to shove Hillarycare down America's throat, then worked to incrementally foist the socialist elements of her plan onto the American health care consumer. There were all sorts of little chances, sort of the Midnight Basketball of health care that Hillary got her Bubba husband to get through Congress. Merline writes:

President Clinton signed the Mental Health Parity Act that forced insurers to cover mental health the same way they cover other health care. He signed HIPAA, which aside from forcing patients to sign privacy statements over and over again at their doctors' office, also imposed various federal regulations on the insurance industry. And in 1997, Clinton signed a bill creating the Children's Health Insurance Program, which let parents get their children on Medicaid even if they didn't qualify. The program, which started out with a budget of $4 billion a year, will spend close to $17 billion this year and now covers nearly 9 million children. There's lots to chew on in that model for pushing through reforms. If the left can do this sort of thing just naturally, it might make sense for the right to start adapting its model just to get used to the idea of winning. Merline suggests medical savings accounts and Ted Cruz's idea of offering people a choice of Obamacare insurance and insurance policies people might really want in a free market. This latter idea, from the Texas senator, is exactly the technique José Piñera used to enact his Chilean Model of private savings accounts for retirement back in 1978. He gave Chileans a choice of the old bankrupt socialist social security pension plan or the new Chilean Model of private retirement savings accounts. At the time, he thought he was optimistic in expecting maybe 10% of Chileans to sign up. Much to his surprise, 25% signed up on the spot, and a massive flood of sign-ups followed, eventually reaching to around 95% of the population choosing the private option. Any questions as to what the fate of Obamacare might be if consumers were offered a real choice? I'll add my own ideas to Merline's list, to include transparency in pricing, individual insurance policies available over state lines to expand pools and lower cost, and an end to punitive fines for being unable to afford the Nightmare of Obamacare. Bad as Bubba and Hillary were as co-presidents, it's noteworthy that the pair never gave up when they got defeated on some of their grander plans for "change" in the U.S. "Well, we just have to win, then," as Bubba once philosophized. The Clintons are nothing if not relentless.