Republican Obamacare plan signals that liberalism has already won

In releasing their healthcare plan on Monday, House Republican leaders sent a signal loud and clear: liberalism has already won.

Barring radical changes, Republicans will not be passing a bill that ushers in a new era of market-based healthcare. In reality, the GOP will either be passing legislation that rests on the same philosophical premise as Obamacare, or will pass nothing at all, and thus keep Obamacare itself in place.

Going into the healthcare debate in 2009, there was a clear clash of healthcare visions. Those on the left, whose ideal would be a single-payer system, at a minimum wanted to expand the role of government and use a combination of subsidies and regulations to move the United States in the direction of national healthcare.

Those on the right envisioned a different system that migrated away from a world in which most people obtained coverage through government and their employers, into one in which individuals controlled their healthcare dollars, could take their plans with them from job to job, and choice and competition drove down cost and improved access.

With Democrats in power Obamacare passed in 2010, triggering seven years of political resistance among Republicans. When President Trump was elected, there were a lot of news articles about how it meant the end of the Obama legacy. But the real test is whether, at the end of the day, Obama moved the ball forward for liberalism even after Trump's efforts to undo his policies. On healthcare, if this bill is any indication, the answer is clear that Obama moved the ball.