I agree with Ron Bailey’s column on Bush’s health-care proposals, until I get to his proposed solution:

My advice to President Bush on how really to jumpstart consumer-driven health care: mandatory private health insurance. Poor Americans would be offered a voucher with which they would buy private health coverage. Such vouchers could be paid for by abolishing Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Programs….Mandatory private health insurance would avoid the problem of adverse selection, provide insurance for the currently uninsured and make consumer-driven health care work for every American.

While this would be (in theory) a vast improvement over the current employer-driven mess, there’s one problem, which is why I say “in theory”: How is it enforced? What happens to people who don’t do it? With mandatory auto insurance, one in theory revokes the privilege of driving if one doesn’t obey the law, but what’s the equivalent for health insurance?

I suppose the libertarian response is, “their tough luck.” It’s mine, too, but it doesn’t seem very politically correct, or from a policy standpoint, politically palatable.