With more and more American workers mobile and unattached to any specific employer other than themselves, the need to insure "free agent nation" is urgent. The New York Times Magazine reports that Democracy may have published a solution to the problem. Writes the Times’ Matt Bai:

There are also some innovative ideas floating around. Writing in Democracy: A Journal of Ideas in 2005, Karen Kornbluh, Barack Obama’s policy chief in the Senate, proposed replacing the employer-based benefits system with portable “family insurance” instead; this policy might include a flexible tax credit that could be used to offset health care, child care and other family-related expenses–a potentially transformative idea that would benefit families who don’t earn six figures.

You can read Kornbluh’s article here. And you can read the full Times Magazine article here.