This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Monday, May 19th, 2008. I'm Caleb Brown.

What happens when a left-wing Democrat from Oregon and a right-wing Republican from Utah

get together to push for a health care reform that Senator Hillary Clinton says

she would sign as president. Michael Cannon, the Cato Institute's Director of Health Policy Studies, tells us.

Senator Ron Wyden from Oregon and Senator Bob Bennett from Utah have co-sponsored a proposal to revamp America's health care

sector to give everybody health insurance coverage. What's interesting

about this is that Ron Wyden is a left-wing Democrat from Oregon, and Bob Bennett is a very conservative

Republican from Utah, and this proposal to give universal coverage to all Americans has because of that sort of odd

couple quality to it has captured the attention of a lot of people and recently Hillary

Clinton was asked if she were president would she sign this of kind of a presidency and what kind of health care reform we would get with Senator Clinton

in the White House because this Widen Bennett bill is really a proposal for a wholesale government takeover of America's health care sector.

The way it would work would basically be this.

Supporters claim that the bill would have your employers give you the money

that your employer now spends on your health

insurance.

That's about $9,000 for the average family with employer-sponsored health insurance and that you would

then use that to purchase coverage.

The way it would actually work is this.

Yes, the government would require your employer to add that to your salary,

but then the government would tax it from you,

take it right out of your paycheck before you ever see it.

The government would then give that money to... take it right out of your paycheck before you ever see it.

...