“President Bush made bold health policy proposals in his State of the Union message. First, he would level the playing field between individual and employer purchase of health insurance. Second, he would eliminate provisions in the tax law that reward waste and penalize economy in the purchase of health insurance. Third, he would allow the states to redirect federal funds used for charity care and use them to subsidize private insurance instead. The plan has drawn praise from the right and the left. It gets high marks from the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution, as well as the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute. Yet the critics have been quite vocal. Let’s look at their complaints.” (01/30/07)