Some highlights are:

• Enabling small businesses to pool together to buy insurance
• Making health insurance truly portable
• Tort reform
• Insurers would be required to cover pre-exisitng conditions
• Health carriers would have to give consumers more information and prices would be more fair and uniform
• Electronic medical records to protect privacy
• Health Savings Accounts with tax benefits
• Insurance premium discounts for good health
• Cover young adults for a longer period of time on their parent’s coverage
• Tax credits to help consumers buy insurance. 

Jindal’s plan drew some fire from libertarians and conservatives.  Scott A. Robinson contended at www.politicalderby.com there are too many mandates.  The Cato Institute was severe in its criticism. 

It is simply a lie of those favoring the Obama plan that the GOP has not offered a constructive alternative.  Senator Coburn of Oklahoma and Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, among others, have proposed the Patient’s Choice Act in May 2009.  It’s major provisions are similar to the Jindal plan.

Jindal has been interested in health care, Medicare and related issues since college.  He wrote a paper as an intern on reforming Medicare for his first congressional boss, Jim McCrery (Louisiana Republican) and was at 24 the youngest Secretary of the Louisiana Health and Hospital system:

One summer, Jindal worked on Capitol Hill as an intern. About a week into his job with Rep. Jim McCrery, Jindal asked for more substantive work. “I thought, ‘Oh boy, an eager-beaver college student,’” says McCrery, a Louisiana Republican. “I told him to write a paper on how to improve Medicare. I figured that would keep him busy and I wouldn’t see him again.” Just before the internship ended, however, Jindal dropped a thick manuscript on McCrery’s desk. “It was an excellent piece of work,” says McCrery. “It identified problems, discussed budgetary implications, and suggested reforms.”

That contact helped Jindal land his first big job in government. In 1995, Jindal was working as a management consultant in Washington, and voters in Louisiana were getting ready to elect a governor. The young man phoned his old boss. Would McCrery help him become Louisiana’s next health secretary? The congressman asked his 24-year-old caller whether he would consider something a little more junior, such as assistant secretary. No thanks, said Jindal. McCrery promised to make an inquiry or two. To the amazement of everybody except perhaps Jindal, Gov. Mike Foster hired the wunderkind. Jindal was put in charge of an agency that consumed about 40 percent of the state’s budget. In two years, he wiped out a $400 million deficit.

Thanks to National Review, John J. Miller, May 14, 2007. 

The GOP cannot get its health care passed without those who bravely went out and faced hostile representatives and some fierce opposition to insist this plan be debated.  If Cong. Paul’s Audit the Fed Act can be cosponsored by nearly 300 in the House and get hearings, based largely on grassroots agitation by his followers and others, this can get traction.  I also urge the reader to ponder the confidence of a young man who at 24 became a state cabinet secretary.

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour is a possible candidate.  He has a good post-Katrina reputation (although predictably Salon disagrees) and also worked on tort reform in MS.  But he is a former lobbyist and head of the RNC.  He spoke in Iowa and is the head of the GOP governor’s association must be respected.

Senator John Thune – South Dakota is a giant killer:  He beat Minority Leader Tom Daschle in his second try for the Senate.  (He may have won the first time, too!  His graciousness in conceding defeat is a lesson for all aspirants.)  Thune is competent, telegenic and charismatic.

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich.  Gingrich is also a giant-killer – he ended the Democratic hold on the House of Representatives in 1994.  But the Gingrich Revolution failed or was derailed (Sen. Tom Coburn in his great book, Breach of Faith, says it was derailed by DC as usual).    I admire Gingrich very much.  He is a rare visionary and intellectual who was successful in politics.  He is a fascinating person for politics:  He wrote this review on a book on trilobites, yes that is not a misprint, trilobites, those little prehistoric animals that lived for about 400,000,000 years or so as the scientists count time.  Gingrich was a professor at a small Georgia college before he became Speaker.  He is interested in running for President it seems to me.  However, he has personal and congressional baggage (not all is true but will be used against him) from his years in DC.  Gingrich would be a polarizing choice.  Gingrich and Ron Paul in a debate forum in 2012 would be a nightmare for the other candidates:  No slick solutions allowed!

Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani is eyeing another run for the White House but he is also giving serious consideration for Governor of his home state.  I think the governorship of New York is more likely with maybe eye on 2016 or 2020.