From AlterNet
By Joshua Holland

There’s an episode of the animated show “South Park” in which the young protagonists stumble upon a netherworld inhabited by gnome-like creatures whose sole purpose in life is stealing people’s dirty underwear.

Curious, the boys investigate and uncover the underwear thieves’ master plan, which goes like this:

Step 1: Collect Underwear

Step 2: ?

Step 3: Profit!

At first glance, John McCain’s health care plan makes about as much sense. The policy — typically light on details to avoid getting tripped up by those pesky factual analyses health care advocates are always waving around — is focused on using the “miracle of the free market” to control costs by giving individuals more choices.

Step one: Increase Americans’ “freedom” and “choice.” Step three: Profit!

Missing is step two. There’s a brief but vague mention of a greater emphasis on preventing chronic illness and an equally fuzzy paragraph on improving information technology, and McCain says he “will look” to re-importing pharmaceuticals, but there’s very little meat to the section on controlling costs. McCain does slip in a proposal for “tort reform” to stop “endless, frivolous lawsuits” — a favorite conservative myth that has been long debunked in academic literature (when one includes jury awards, legal fees and insurance costs, lawsuits account for less than one-half of 1 percent of U.S. health care spending — a drop in the proverbial bucket).

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