That Health-Insurance Bill and the Bailouts

If the proposed health-insurance bill causes insurers to come close to bankruptcy (which Richard Epstein says is possible), I predict the left side of the political spectrum will claim that anything done to prevent that is “just another bailout” and that proves that “free-enterprise” is a code word for government action on behalf of capitalists.

These are the same people who claimed that loan-guarantees in reaction to nuclear utility bankruptcies caused by regulatory delays in an inflationary environment were subsidies and, in accordance with the tactic of “make the enemy live up to his book of rules,” had to be rejected by capitalists.