Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, is apparently trying to oversimplify things when it comes to health care insurance coverage and also suggesting nonsense as his opponents' ideas. Let's take things one at a time.

The Arizona senator said that he would give every American family a $5,000 refundable tax credit and $2,500 to individuals to purchase cheaper, more suitable insurance on the open market, even across state lines. The subsequent competition would drive the prices lower and encourage improvements in the insurance system, McCain thinks.

John McCain said that he would work with states to design a new health care plan. He "won't create another entitlement program that Washington will let get out of control," nor would he "saddle states with another unfunded mandate," McCain said at the Tampa cancer research hospital.

"Insurance companies could no longer take your business for granted, offering narrow plans with escalating costs. It would help change the whole dynamic of the current system, putting individuals and families back in charge," Senator McCain said.

Another element of McCain's plan is the proposed set up of a nonprofit Guaranteed Access Plan which is to provide coverage to individuals who are denied it from private insurers due to pre-existing conditions. The plan would be set up by state governments. However, it's quite clearly that this a very simplified version of things.

First of all, employers have the muscle to negotiate a better deal than an individual could. Medical insurance companies couldn't care less if they lose an individual's policy, especially if he is a high risk one. However, they do care if they lose the business of a corporation, which can buy thousands of policies. Employers, in fact, appear to protect the little man at least in the short term. An individual does stand a better chance if he gets included with his employer-provided coverage.

McCain's plan will not put families in charge, it will put insurers in charge. Individuals will never be in charge, either way, not in the United States anyway.

He also talks repeatedly some nonsense about the fact that the plans put out by Obama and Clinton "want a massive government takeover of the health care system in America." He also invited people who are into his opponents' plans to travel to countries that have government-run health care systems where they are supposed to see that they do not work.

McCain is, quite clearly, misleading in both ways: neither do the two Democrats want a government takeover of the health care system (yes, the decades-old Republican cliché), nor are the health care systems in Canada, Britain and other countries, mostly in Europe, that much worse than the health care business in the U.S. Of course, it's all too natural for politicians to mislead during their campaigns, and beyond.