Last week, I highlighted what has already become the standard meme for ”progressive” policy wonks who wish to bash John McCain’s proposal to decouple health insurance from employment. The basic talking point, as expressed by Jonathan Cohn, goes as follows:
Insurance companies generally won’t offer coverage directly to people with ‘pre-existing conditions,’ since they represent such bad financial risks.
The […]
In addition to being incapable of objective, non-partisan analysis, progressive health care wonks are utterly predictable. They can be counted on to mindlessly denounce any reform proposal from any Republican—-regardless of its merits.
So, their response to John McCain’s newly fleshed out health care agenda was no surprise. They reflexively repeated their talking points like so many parrots screeching in unison. One […]
McCain’s health care plan is by no means perfect, but it is vastly superior to that of the probable Democrat presidential nominee. Here’s an excerpt from my American Spectator article comparing McCain’s health care reform agenda to Obama’s:
McCain would emphasize consumer choice, markets and tax reform, while eschewing government-run health care. As he put it on April 28, at […]
It is increasingly likely that the battle between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton over the Democratic presidential nomination will result in a McCain victory in November. As Noam Scheiber puts in TNR:
Democrats contemplate the apocalypse these days, they have visions of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton slugging it out à la Ted Kennedy and Jimmy Carter at […]
Shawn Tully advises the readers of Fortune Magazine that John McCain’s health care plan is better than the alternatives offered by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama:
For all its problems, at least it puts the consumer in charge … It will create a world where health care is treated as the precious resource that it is, […]
Jonathan Cohn is more thoughtful than most journalists who write about health care (admittedly, not a high bar to get over), but his mistrust of the market usually leads him astray on the question of reform. Thus, when he pans John McCain’s proposals, it suggests that the Senator is on the right track:
The main thrust of [McCain’s] plan is to […]
Yesterday, I noted that Barack Obama and John McCain are both right on health insurance mandates. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about their positions on drug reimportation. Both are for it—which means they are for importing the price controls of Canada and other countries.
As I discuss here, drug reimportation would stifle innovation while producing insignificant reductions in pharmaceutical spending. […]
The Potomac primary has made it more likely than ever that Barack Obama and John McCain will be the nominees of their respective parties in the Fall. That’s good news for those of us who oppose health insurance mandates. It’s not unheard of for politicians to renege on promises, of course, but both have made very strong statements […]
It looks increasingly likely that John McCain will be the Republican nominee in the Fall. He’s wrong on drug reimportation, but in general he’s better on health care than Romney. Michael Tanner sums it up pretty well:
He has offered the best health care reform plan of any of the candidates. While Mitt Romney has embraced the basic tenants of […]