Michael L. Millenson, a health care consultant and the author of "Demanding Medical Excellence: Doctors and Accountability in the Information Age," writing in today's Washington Post, discusses the fault lines among left-leaning special-interests that he believes have prevented the nation from embarking on a "universal" health care scheme.

While bemoaning these divergent interests and arguing for unity on behalf of policies that express "our willingness to be our brothers' keepers," an impulse that Millenson argues "defines who we are as Americans," he also provides a useful reminder that advocates for more government involvement in health care are by no means unified. In fact, those who believe that individuals can make better health care decisions than can government bureaucrats, should attempt to exploit these differences whenever possible.

Certainly, Millenson is correct that with elderly already receiving a disproportionate share of government medical spending, the last thing our nation needed was a prescription drug entitlement. So, while it may be tough sledding for free market reformers at the federal level, at least we can take comfort in the fact that the "other side" is not united either. 

If market reforms are to succeed, they will occur at the state level as we saw in Georgia recently.