Story highlights Stephen Moore: Cruz Amendment flips a political losing strategy into a big-time winner

If his amendment stands, left's vision of a single-payer government-run health insurance will go up in smoke, Moore says

Stephen Moore is an economic adviser to Freedom Works and a CNN economic analyst. He served as a senior economic adviser to the Trump campaign. The views expressed are his own.

(CNN) Republicans are finally getting smart on Obamacare. It took one of the savviest Republican senators -- Ted Cruz of Texas, with an assist from Mike Lee of Utah -- to get the GOP ‎to figure out how to replace Obamacare, reduce premiums, and save money for the government. And all without alienating millions of voters. But he's pulled the Republicans' fannies out of the fire by having flipped a political losing strategy into a big-time winner.

The Cruz amendment -- which has been inserted into the GOP Senate health plan -- is smart, because it doesn't take anything away from anyone. If you want Obamacare -- you can have it. You can have the coverage for the 10 "essential benefits,‎" you can have the subsidies and the exchanges that were supposed to save $2,500 per family. It's still there for you.

Stephen Moore

The Cruz‎ amendment creates what is called a "Consumer Freedom Option." This essentially allows an "off-ramp" from Obamacare for the tens of millions of Americans who don't want it. The "Consumer Freedom Option" allows insurers who offer Obamacare-compliant plans to offer a range of much less costly plans. In other words, it empowers people and families to pick and choose what they want in their own insurance package. Some families want and can afford blanket coverage that insures them for everything from cancer to contraceptives to drug addiction to dental care to the sniffles. If you want to pay for that coverage, go for it. ‎

What about families or individuals with lower incomes or healthy life styles that want the other extreme? They want slimmed-down coverage that protects them from major medical expenses -- a bad injury like breaking a leg, or a serious disease with costly ongoing treatments. ‎These families may voluntarily choose to pay for more routine medical expenses, like a checkup or a visit to the dentist's office, out of pocket. One benefit is that since more people will pay directly for medical services, they are likely to shop around for the best price, and this competition will lower prices for everyone.

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In other words, the Cruz amendment is pro-choice -- which I thought was one of the anthems of liberalism. Cruz told me that he believes that based on the preliminary numbers that this approach could save tens of millions of Americans as much as 30% on their health costs. That's thousands of dollars of savings per family.

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