Health Insurance and 'Choice'

I agree with Scott Lemieux, and thought this column by Eugene Robinson today was kind of weird. Although it seems to strengthen Robinson's resolve for some kind of health care reform, as Scott says, there's a weird moment at the beginning where he talks more about choice. It was heavily hinged on his personal experience with a bacterial infection and right before he went into surgery, his doctor said to him:

"You know, if you and Obama had your way with health care, it wouldn't be me doing this operation. It would just be some guy."

At the end of the column, Robinson says this:

What's changed is that I also feel more strongly about the ability to make my own choices. I decided where I would be treated and, ultimately, what would or wouldn't be done. I'm willing to pay for that, too.

This reasoning always baffles me. In an attempt to tap into libertarian sensiblities (or whatever it is) people who promote "individual choice" in health care seem to completely ignore the fact that most people don't get to choose their doctors already. Most health care plans have something called "in network" doctors and "out of network" doctors. You certainly can "choose" to go to an out of network doctor, but that would be crazy. You would end up paying hundreds -- or, more likely thousands -- of dollars for your "choice." So you go to the doctor outlined on your insurance providor's website. We should just stop pretending that now everyone can choose whatever doctor they want.