Senator McCain likes to say that he supports free market health care, but it is not true and it is time that the media stop letting him get away with this deception. (That is after they get to the bottom of the Obama flag-pin lapel matter.) How does McCain not support a free market? Well, he is a big supporter of patent protection for prescription drugs and medical devices. As a result of the intervention that McCain supports, drugs that would sell for $4 a prescription at Wal-Mart instead sell for hundreds or even thousands of dollars per prescription. (Yes, patents support innovation -- but they ARE a government intervention, they are not the free market, no matter how much drug companies like them. And, we have far more efficient mechanisms to finance research.) McCain has never raised any objections to all the professional licensing and immigration barriers that keep doctors' salaries much higher in the United States than in other wealthy countries. Anyone who really supported free market health care would be screaming over these barriers. And, McCain has never supported measures that would make it easier for people in the United States to take advantage of the much lower cost health care available in other countries. This would also be a top agenda item for anyone who really believed in a free market in health care. In short, it is very clear that Senator McCain does not in fact support a free market in health care. He supports the government interventions that keep the cost of health care in the United States high, and incidentally allow drug companies, insurance companies, and highly paid medical specialists to prosper. Senator McCain's distortions on health care are far more important than Senator Clinton's distortions on sniper fire in Bosnia. How about some serious reporting on the issue?
--Dean Baker
