The problem is that it’s tough to provide adequate subsidies on a “one size fits all” national level.

Health care costs, and health insurance costs, vary tremendously across the nation. Massachusetts has some of the most expensive care–but also some of the best care, with a world-class medical complex that treats patients from around the world. Other states like the Deep South have much cheaper care.

So a “one size fits all” yearly subsidy of say $5,000, which some conservatives have proposed, might be adequate for the South but totally inadequate for Massachusetts, where health insurance for a family of four can cost $12,000 a year.

But if you allow each household a tax credit equal to their health insurance premiums, you will just contribute to skyrocketing health insurance premiums unless you impose the kind of cost containment that conservatives won’t like.

And if you don’t allow each household a tax credit equal to their health insurance premiums but instead impose a flat ceiling of say $6,000, in effect you will be sticking Americans in states like Massachusetts and New York with a huge tax hike.

Bottom line: It doesn’t matter WHO pays for it. The question is how to reduce the costs of IT in the first place.

Mr. Bramwell seems to think it’s pretty potent stuff.

He also seems to share Emperor Nero’s enthusiasm for fiddling, this time while health care costs are burning a hole in our collective pocket.