McCain adviser admits their health care plan is ailing!

Today McCain's senior economic policy adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, all but admitted the campaign's health care plan is a sham. During an interview on CNN, Holtz-Eakin discussed whether younger, healthier workers would be likely to abandon their company-sponsored health care plans and spend McCain's health care tax credit to buy insurance on the free market. He said:

"Why would they leave? What they are getting from their employer is way better than what they could get with the credit."

That's a great admission from the campaign since the entire premise of their plan is that people can do better on the free market -- hence the tax credit. According to McCain, a market-based system means better, cheaper health care. Now his senior policy adviser admits that's not so even though McCain wants to tax employer health benefits to push people to get insurance on the free market (where providers can deny you coverage for pre-existing conditions).

Bottom line: McCain's senior adviser says even the young and healthy would NOT be able to afford good insurance with their McCain-provided health care tax credit. Sounds like McCain put as much thought into his health care plan as he did into picking Sarah Palin as his running mate.