Ooops!

Doug Holtz-Eakin explains why McCain’s plan won’t cause young and healthy workers to drop out of group plans:

Younger, healthier workers likely wouldn’t abandon their company-sponsored plans, said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, McCain’s senior economic policy adviser.

“Why would they leave?” said Holtz-Eakin. “What they are getting from their employer is way better than what they could get with the credit.”

In other words, John McCain is promising to make your health care worse! Ooops!

I’m actually not sure if this is a “Kinsley gaffe” (where you accidentally tell the truth) or an effort at spin so desperate that he wound up pleading to an even worse offense than McCain was accused of. The individual market for health insurance really does suck. Nevertheless, it really might be more attractive to young and healthy workers — especially to arrogant and somewhat irrational ones. All things considered, it’s a bit hard to say. But one can say soberly that either McCain’s plan would cause people to drop out of the system and create serious problems for older workers, or else that might not happen because the individual market that McCain wants us to slowly shift to is actually so terrible that even the youngest and healthiest workers will resist it with all their might.