Long article but scroll down to midway…..

As it happens, this author has been arguing that Republicans should be focusing on medical cures, as opposed to health insurance, since 2009. Yes, it’s true that people want health insurance, but what they really want, even more, is health. And while there will always be plenty to argue about in re: health insurance, there’s a lot less to argue about on health itself, including the benefits of a medical cure. Moreover, if we can make a disease completely go away—as we did with smallpox in 1980—then not only are people healthier and happier, but the system saves money, because not being sick is lot less costly than providing care.

In other words, medical cures are a way of reducing medical costs and improving people’s lives—the essence of a win-win. A win, in fact, that both political parties can celebrate.

By contrast, if the Republican plan on healthcare—make that, health insurance—can be defined as “taking something away” from people, namely, health insurance—well, we’ve seen how that plays out.

In 2017, with those thoughts in mind, this author compared Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare to World War One trench warfare–that is, a lot of bleeding, but not much upside. Also at Breitbart News, this author has argued that what people really want is breakthroughs on medical cures, starting with, say, advances against the dreaded Alzheimer’s Disease. And so a truly MAGA healthcare plan would lead off with medical cures as part of a comprehensive approach to healthcare, of which health-insurance reform is a part, but only a part.

After all, there’s always some dire new medical threat; most recently, we’ve seen an outbreak of a polio-like illness, acute flaccid myelitis, which this year alone has struck down at least 116 Americans. Better treatment, or a cure, or at least a vaccine, would not only be popular, but would also undoubtedly be cheaper, long term, than financing the care for a whole a new group of paralytics.

For reasons we have seen, most Republican politicos didn’t want the healthcare issue to come up again in 2019—they have suffered enough. But now the issue has arisen, and the GOP has no choice but to come up with better answers, lest 2020 look like 2018.

Fortunately, Republicans have some genuine successes to point to—and to learn from. Back in 2016, Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi and Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan teamed up to spearhead legislation to accelerate medical research and development, the 21st Century Cures Act. That bill, passed by big majorities in both chambers of Congress and signed into law by President Obama, did much to broaden the GOP’s healthcare message in ’16—and Republicans had a pretty good election that year.

Oddly, the good ideas in The Cures Act—that a cure is better than care, that it’s cheaper to beat than to treat—were neglected in 2017 and 2018, and the recent elections results, of course, speak for themselves.

So now, come 2019, the opportunity exists for Republicans do it again—to go back to a cure strategy as a key part of the pitch. Because, after all, it’s better to win than to lose.

https://www.breitbart.com/health/2018/12/16/pinkerton-obamacare-ruling-republicans-need-pivot-again-medical-cures/