McCain's got health care for you!

Of all the awkwardly missing issues in this election, perhaps nothing tops the examination, or lack of examination, of McCain's health care plan.

Trudy Lieberman at CJR says that to the extent that it's been discussed, the focus has not been on the bigger picture: that the plan threatens to take apart employer-based health insurance as we know it.

And maybe the Obama campaign has failed to bring this up enough (though it's done better lately, including in last night's debate, and with a new ad). But regardless of what Obama says or doesn't, what we ought to have is an examination of what exactly McCain's program would lead to, and fitting that into the historical context of the movement to end employer-based health insurance.

There has been some coverage very recently -- most notably a useful Krugman piece on Monday. Ruth Marcus prefers Obama's plan but says McCain's isn't all that bad (see response by Ezra Klein).

One response to the lack of coverage is that McCain's proposal is irrelevant because it won't actually get passed by congress (which it wouldn't). In fact, Obama's proposal could be rather difficult given the current economic situation. And, you could say this about most domestic policy proposals, especially from the candidate who's party doesn't control congress.

But not examining the candidates proposals would be an absurd standard. We're always looking for "windows on how they would govern" or whatever, and their concrete proposals -- even ones that wouldn't come to reality -- are exactly that. McCain's health care plan shouldn't be off the table.