by Maisie Allison
Even Milton Friedman supported "a requirement that every U.S. family unit have a major medical insurance policy" in 1991. Contra Ezra Klein, Avik Roy maintains that the Republican change-of-heart on the issue is sincere:
Unless conservatives coalesce around a free-market vision of health reform, they will always find themselves rushing headlong into tactical policy proposals—like the individual mandate—that they haven’t fully thought through. Conservatives are always playing defense, instead of offense, when it comes to improving our health-care system. For various reasons having to do with the way in which the modern conservative movement arose, health reform just hasn’t been a priority for the Right. If you want to blame conservatives for something, blame them for that.
(Photo: Romney poses with the Massachusetts health care bill to his left in his official portrait, via Wikimedia Commons. Vanity Fair provides a "close reading" here.)
The Dish 