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Obama: Trying To Make Health Care Simple

Obama's answer about health care reform came straight from the speech he gave a few days ago--which, as I wrote at the time, was very strong.

While the scheme Obama supports is necessarily complicated, I think his two-step explanation makes sense: If you have insurance and like it, you get to keep it; if not, you can buy the same insurance I have. His critique of McCain's plan was spot-on, too. The reference to business groups opposing McCain's plan is a reference to this terrific piece by Kevin Sack, in today's New York Times

Meantime, McCain is trotting out the same old arguments he's been making all along: It's government! It's mandates!

I did like his argument about "responsibility," which I agree is important: Everybody has a responsibility to pay what they can for their health insurance.* But that works both ways. We, as a society, have a responsibility to make sure everybody can get insurance. McCain's plan won't do that.  

*Note: Forcing everybody to pay what they can for health insurance is why I support an individual mandate, something Obama opposes. Thanks to reader "ryanmacd" for reminding me about that. 

--Jonathan Cohn