McCain's Medicine

The Arizona Senator gets back in the reform business.

"Riding low in the polls, it seems, has allowed John McCain to take some policy risks. At Tuesday's Republican primary debate, he talked about the need to junk the tax code to make it fairer and flatter. Then Mr. McCain followed up with a health-care reform announced in Iowa yesterday, perhaps recapturing the aura of political creativity that animated his Presidential bid in 2000.

The Senator's views are panoramic, and he's looking at a health-care landscape grounded in free-market principles. His major proposal would change the tax treatment of insurance. To rehearse: Today's tax code allows businesses to deduct the costs of providing health insurance to their employees, but it doesn't allow the same for individuals. That creates third-party payer problems for the insured and makes coverage less affordable for everyone else. Mr. McCain would offer a refundable tax credit of $2,500 for individuals, and $5,000 for families."

Read more at Opinion Journal.