Kadiera's Playground Cute but Evil - it averages out

It was a very surreal moment this morning, listening to John McCain's health care reform plan on NPR.

Among the statements broadcast was something along the lines of the un-insured not being the problem, because most Americans *have* health care. To his mind, the problem is the cost, and he seems to think costs are high because employers provide health care rather than consumers paying directly, and because we should do more preventative and maintenence care when it comes to chronic illness.

His plan also wouldn't help the chronically ill - in fact, many people would likely *lose* their insurance, because there's nothing in his plan that requires insurers who provide individual plans to cover those with pre-existing conditions. I know when I had COBRA coverage, I couldn't *get* individual insurance because I have asthma; even now, it's likely that this would be an issue if I didn't have insurance through my employer.

What struck me, more than anything, is how out of touch he is on this front.

Among the things listed on his website, I do like this one:
Allow individuals to get insurance through any organization or association that they choose: employers, individual purchases, churches, professional association, and so forth.
An organization I used to be on the board for once discussed whether we could do something like this to help our members gain the benefits of group insurance even though we weren't an employer.

But one good idea doesn't negate a ton of really messed up bad ideas.