Enjoy watching Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky), who already looks like a fish on the pier that someone caught by mistake and didn’t throw back in time, go blank when Chris Wallace (on FOX News!) asks what the Republican alternative is to “Obamacare.”

But keep a couple of points in mind as you view.

First, there is not enough tort reform in three universes to solve the problem of rising American health care costs.

Second, Republicans have had the past three and a half years to answer the question that Chris Wallace is asking: “Obama has his plan to provide access to health care for the 30 million uninsured people in this country. You don’t like it. So what’s yours?” We know how it’s been done up to now: by treating the uninsured in hospital emergency rooms and having you, me, and everyone else who does have insurance pick up the bill. Always, always, always remember that not paying for health care for the uninsured is a false choice. We are paying for it now, we are just paying at maximum emergency room rates.

Last, as Jon has so often pointed out, the private sector has had decades to solve this problem, and could make it go away tomorrow. They could have, on their own, not developed cruel and greedy rules about pre-existing conditions, for example, or they could have abolished them when they became untenable. But they didn’t. Their only solution to decrease the costs of health care was to decrease coverage. They saved on their out-of-pocket expense by increasing ours.

So sit back and watch. And if you hear a solution coming from Sen. McConnell, or any other Republican, or the private sector, let me know.

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