I agree with what Jennifer Rubin says here. there are market based sensible approaches that can be taken to reform our health insurance/health care system in this country, but the left wingers in charge aren’t interested in any such thing.
So why doesn’t the Obama team or their allies look to some alternative ideas, including interstate competition and tax credits, to spur individual purchase of insurance? (We won’t even ask about tort reform, which is an anathema to Democrats dependent on the largess of trial lawyers.) Well certainly, Obama and liberal lawmakers are having a tough time giving up the idea of universal coverage provided by the government. If they can’t get nationalized medicine now they may never succeed. So until the last Blue Dog’s arm has been twisted they won’t throw in the towel quite yet.
But in some sense, it would not be attractive for Obama and his liberal cohorts to open up insurance competition, even if it would almost certainly gain a large bipartisan majority in Congress and succeed in increasing availability and lowering costs. Really, from their perspective, the whole point is for government to be giving out health care. There is no glory in allowing the free market to deliver health care. Politicians aren’t going to get much credit for that. And for those incumbents enjoying the flood of lobbyists and constituents who would be all seeking to tweak a government-run system one way or another—and pony up commensurate political contributions—there is little to be gained by simply pointing voters to the internet for an expanded list of insurers.
UPDATE:
funny video link courtesy of Jonah Goldberg over at the Corner
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQ_tAe87ELo&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&feature=player_embedded&fs=1]