Since John has awarded the prize for the most ridiculous headline to the Times, let’s make it a twofer and give the Times the dumbest opening paragraph as well.

The Senate voted Thursday to require health insurance companies to provide free mammograms and other preventive services to women, and it turned back a Republican challenge to Medicare savings that constitute the single largest source of financing for the bill.

Just as there are no free lunches, there are no free mammograms either. The insurance companies will pass the cost along to the policy holders in the form of higher premiums. These politically imposed mandates are a major reason why health insurance is so much more costly in states like New York and New Jersey than it is in neighboring states like Connecticut and Pennsylvania. A family policy that costs $12,250 a year in New York costs only $7,750 a year next door in Connecticut because that state does not have guaranteed issuance (get sick today, buy the policy tomorrow, and still be covered) and many fewer coverage mandates. New York has no fewer than 51 of these, including chiropractic treatment, acupuncture, and — a very big-ticket item — in vitro fertilization. Even if you think chiropractors are quacks, hate needles, and are at a stage in life when you don’t want to make babies even the old-fashioned way, you still must pay for coverage because politicians in Albany have decided you should.

As I have often pointed out, politicians cannot make economic decisions; they can make only political ones. That’s why socialism has never worked — and it never will. For socialized medicine, that goes double.