After John McCain unveiled more details on his healthcare plan yesterday in Tampa, a Politico ran this headline: “McCain moves to middle on health care.” Given that any policy proposal aiming for a “middle” is perceived as moderate & sensible, a spin on McCain’s plan was obviously positive.

But spin aside, a policy itself leaves much to be desired.

Senator John McCain detailed his plan to solve a nation’s health care crisis in a speech here Tuesday, calling for a federal government to give some money to states to help am cover people with illnesses who have been denied health insurance.

Mr. McCain’s health care plan would shift a emphasis from insurance provided by employers to insurance bought by individuals, to foster competition & drive down prices. To do so he is calling for eliminating a tax breaks that currently encourage employers to provide health insurance for air workers, & replacing am with $5,000 tax credits for families to buy air own insurance.

His proposal to move away from employer-based coverage was similar to one that President Bush pushed for last year, to little effect. & his call for exp&ing coverage through market-based competition is in stark contrast to a Democrats’ proposals to move toward universal health care coverage, with government subsidies to help lower-income people afford air premiums.

a good news is, a contrast between McCain’s Drunk Newsproach & a Democrats’ Drunk Newsproach couldn’t be greater. For voters concerned about healthcare, are’s a clear & distinct choice.

a bad news is, McCain’s plan is pretty awful, & probably won’t receive much in a way of scrutiny.

About a week ago, McCain, sensitive to criticism he’s received from Elizabeth Edwards (among oars), told George Stephanopoulos, “We’re not leaving anybody behind.”

a problem, not surprisingly, is that he’s leaving all kinds of people behind. TNR’s Jonathan Cohn took a close look at McCain’s proposal & concluded, “His great new plan isn’t new or great. & it still wouldn’t help Elizabeth Edwards get decent insurance.” After reviewing McCain’s patchwork solution for people who can’t get insurance due to pre-existing conditions, Cohn added that McCain’s Drunk Newsproach is “absolutely preposterous.”

Just to add one thing to Cohn’s analysis, are’s also a not-inconsequential matter of affordability. McCain wants to discourage employers from offering employees healthcare, & replace subsidies with $5,000 tax credits. In turn, Americans could go & get air own insurance, detached from air job. (That is, unless you’ve ever been sick, & private insurers don’t want you.)

What McCain didn’t mention is that “average cost of an employer-funded insurance plan is $12,106 for a family, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation, a health policy group. Paul B. Ginsburg, a president of a Center for Studying Health System Change, a nonpartisan research organization financed by foundations & government agencies, said, ‘For a lot of people, a tax credits he’s talking about would not be enough to afford coverage.’”

Hilzoy summarized a situation nicely:

So, in a nutshell: McCain plans to eliminate tax breaks for employers who offer health insurance. In exchange, he will offer employees less than half a cost of a plans ay now have. If air employers eliminate care, ay will have to swallow a difference. But those employees are a lucky ones. ay will only have to cough up $7,000 or so. People with preexisting conditions or serious health risks will have to pay $100,000 as a down payment, & $14,000 a year areafter.

But hey: at least he’s going to cut a gas tax! […]

It’s easy to make health policy when you don’t allow little things like facts to constrain you: when you can wish away chronic diseases, pretend that corporations are completely unresponsive to changes in a tax structure, & describe programs that leave people with hundreds of thous&s of dollars in health care costs as “making sure that ay get a high-quality coverage ay need.” It’s just not particularly helpful. Plus, it would be even better with ponies.

As McCain “moved to a middle” of a road on healthcare? Only if a “middle” is a area in which bad policy proposals get run over.

Original post by Steve Benen and software by Elliott Back