In a perfect ode to the free market principles espoused by Milton Friedman on the day of his death, we see an interesting situation developing around this nation’s healthcare and various solutions parroted to the citizens, both in the public and private sectors. HUMAN EVENTS’s Ken Shepard notes the mainstream media’s failure to highlight that Wal-Mart, and thus some of its competitors (because that’s how a competitive free market works), is beginning to offer prescription drugs for $4 - but the media has gladly harped on the difficulties of the Republican Medicare Part D program, for which re-enrollment has just begun. Says Shepard:

The same day the federal government opened re-enrollment for a costly drug benefit, Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE: WMT) expanded its $4-generic drug plan and another competitor announced it would offer generic drugs for the same price. Yet while ABC’s “World News” complained about the cost and inconvenience of Medicare premiums, it left the role discount retailers like Wal-Mart and BJ’s Wholesale Club (NYSE: BJ) have in making medicine more affordable.

On the November 15 program, anchor Charles Gibson complained that “43 million senior citizens, eligible for the Part D prescription drug benefit, have to enroll for 2007, and there is no prospect that it’s going to be any easier.”

Correspondent Lisa Stark took up the story with complaints by senior citizens about rising premiums and how confusing it is to navigate all the fine print when comparing drug plans. For good measure Stark tossed in Ron Pollack, a liberal health care activist and a supporter of Bill Clinton’s 1994 plan to universalize health care.

Stark left out Pollack’s political bent, however, and characterized him merely as one of many experts “who study next year’s options” to “warn that people need to look closely at the fine print.”

Yet Stark herself didn’t pore over the fine print – in the federal budget. Nowhere in her story did she mention the hundreds of billions of dollars Medicare Part D is projected to cost taxpayers. Conservative detractors such as The Heritage Foundation consider it a “massive new experiment in central planning” and have estimated it will set back taxpayers nearly $700 billion over 10 years.

So, um, maybe Wal-Mart isn’t so evil after all? Don’t hold your breath waiting for the mainstream media to give Wal-Mart half the airtime they give the Medicare disaster.