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The LA Times has a good (not quite great) story on how the major Republican candidates' plans to help the uninsured don't... you know... help the uninsured. The piece focuses on preexisting conditions and, despite an odd peg to the Republican candidates' own histories of cancer, it does a good job of explaining the issue. It won't exactly be news to most readers of this blog, but reporters don't talk about this kind of stuff and should be commended when they do (in this case, credit goes to Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and his editors). Also, I love this criticism, from the left of the Republicans' plans by a Heritage Foundation wonk:
"When you give a [tax credit] to somebody, that can be a help," said Stuart Butler of the conservative Heritage Foundation. "But if they have a history of severe medical problems, giving them $5,000 doesn't really help them to afford insurance. Unless you build in some kind of risk-spreading mechanism to the equation, a subsidy doesn't cut it."Ya think?--Sam Boyd