McCain Rx: Deregulate Health Care—Just Like Banks

Paul Krugman of the New York Times could not believe his eyes when he saw what John McCain said in an article about health care this month in Contingencies. Quothe McCain: “Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation.”

In other words, “McCain, who is now campaigning as the scourge of Wall Street, was praising financial deregulation like 10 seconds ago,” writes Krugman, “and promising that if we marketize health care, it will perform as well as the financial industry!” (More McCain 2008 stories.)