The Albany Times-Union highlights various health care reforms that states are enacting or studying. As you might expect, it's a mixed bag of goods.

Let's start out with the better ideas.

They include tax credits for companies to provide insurance. Fine, I suppose, but better are tax credits for individuals, which are also being offered. Even these, though, pale in comparison with the effect of the federal tax code, which puts individual purchases at a severe disadvantage.

Alaska and Arkansas are said to offer mandate-free policies. Though I'm skeptical as to just how "mandate-free" these policies are, the less restrictive policies will be cheaper, a good thing for consumers.

Association health plans and other non-employment-based methods of group purchasing promise an alternative to the "lose your job, lose your insurance" model.

There's also premium assistance, in which government gives money to people who then purchase on their own. That beats some other ideas, but it's still health care welfare.

It goes downhill from there, ranging from further distorting the insurance market through regulation (imposing a slacker mandate), expanding Medicaid and related programs, and requiring employers or individuals to purchase insurance.