Et Tu, Ken?

"Republican gubernatorial candidate J. Kenneth Blackwell on Thursday unveiled a five-point plan for overhauling Ohio's health care system that would require all Ohioans to have health insurance."

Gee, where have we seen this before?

In fairness, it doesn't look as draconian as the Mass plan (for example, those currently covered under an employer-sponsored group plan would keep that coverage). Because state law requires ER's to treat even the uninsured, that's their first (and often last) stop. Emergency care, though, is the most expensive care in the current system, which further drives up the cost of health care delivery.

As one of our astute commenters has noted, however, "the symptom is not the problem. The problem is the high total cost of health care." He concludes "that tinkering with insurance mechanisms does nothing to address the underlying cost of health care." It's not clear that this initiative will do much (if anything) to address that issue.

Of course, funding for this new program is still "nebulous" (from the Latin nebu, meaning "ripped from" and elous meaning "taxpayers wallets"). We'll keep an eye on this, and let our readers know whether or not it gains any traction here in the Buckeye State.