David Frum is wrong:

In a post where he comes out for John McCain - dispite his qualms about Palin - Frum gives: a list of 10 items why: (emp add)

8) McCain’s healthcare plan is the first and essential step toward a market-based approach. If competition is to work, individuals must buy their own care.

That's not true in many instances, health care being on of them. Frum says that for "competition to work" it's okay for individuals to shop among a limited set of health care providers. But competition would be fiercer if individuals banded together (union, under an employer plan, at various levels of government grouping) and use their increased economic power to cut a better deal. But Republicans don't like that because it hurts their interests - supporting business over others. Witness their resistance to having the federal government bargain for prescription drugs. They didn't like that because the government was a stronger economic entity, even though free market principles should allow for any coalitions to form and participate in the market.


posted by Quiddity at 11/03/2008 07:54:00 AM