“An area in the Healthcare debate where Republicans and Democrats agree!”, NPR’s “Marketplace Money” trumpeted last night.

“Only in the most trivial possible way, I’m gonna guess“, I thought, turning the radio up.

Am I ever wrong about these things?

Naturally, the Democrats favor a form of “competition” that has all the “competition” regulated out; essentially, the Tic version of the idea looks more like “privately-administered socialized healthcare”, only marginally less noxious than Obamacare itself.

The Republican plan would allow insurance companies to sell across state lines, more or less the say car, boat and motorcycle insurance works today.

Naturally, it’s sparking debate; conservatives welcome competition…:

Proponents of the idea say that the tangle of state regulation drives up costs, particularly in states with heavy mandates, and that a quick and easy way to reduce prices would be to allow people in states where insurance is expensive, like New York or Massachusetts, to buy policies in low-cost states like Minnesota.

Mr. Shadegg, who sponsored legislation to allow insurance sales across state lines in 2005 and has championed the idea ever since, likes to illustrate the lack of competition by pointing to how different the market is for automobile insurance.

“If you turn on the television station at night,” he said, “you see Allstate and Geico and Progressive and State Farm pounding each other’s heads in. ‘Drop your policy and come get a policy from us, and we’ll do two things — we’ll save you money and give you better service.’ You never see that kind of advertisement for you and I to go out and buy health insurance.”

But Mr. Shadegg adamantly opposes the Democrats’ take on the idea. He dislikes their requirement that states pass laws to create health care “compacts,” and he rejects the Democrats’ efforts to impose tight new federal regulations on insurers. Replacing many knots of state rules with a big knot of federal rules would defeat the purpose, he said.

Democrats: “But if you allow people to choose their own insurance, some of them will choose insurance that costs less and has fewer regulations!”.

No, really:

President Obama and leading Democrats, however, warn that without new regulations, private insurance companies would race to set up shop in states with lax regulation, minimal benefits requirements and the fewest consumer protections.

The nerve of those peasants – picking out the insurance they need and can afford, rather than insurance that’s larded up with all sorts of costly mandated coverage that just might not apply to them.

“If you go to full interstate shopping, you are going to need some consumer protection,” said Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, a supporter of the idea. Still, Mr. Wyden said he believed that compromise with Republicans is possible. “There is a lot to work with here,” he said.

In addition to bringing better, less expensive insurance to more people (even left-leaning “All Things Considered” noted that while Minnesotans might not see much benefit because our insurance is already relatively cheap, over half of the people in New York and New Jersey could find better insurance cheaper under this plan.

Presuming they can do with fewer benefits and less regulation, anyway…