Give and take

Give and take

The Wall St. Journal has a simplistic lead editorial on health care policy today. The basic message: government bad, private sector good. Among other things the editorial praises Rep John Shadegg's proposal for a 50-state insurance market.

Luckily the Journal tends toward intellectual honesty. On the letters page are two that indirectly question the editorial. One notes that Rep Shadegg “champions himself as a member of the Revolutionary Class of 1994” but has forgotten he used to tout term limits. (Government: good?)

Another letter corrects an earlier editorial page distortion by pointing out that a recent study shows that doctors continue to accept Medicare, not that they'd stopped doing so. Considering that the letter writer is the study's author perhaps we should believe him.