I tell ya, I’m on the edge of my seat. Can’t hardly breathe. So, you may ask, why all the anticipation?

Randy Brock is about to unveil his health care plan.

Yes, folks, RandyCare is on the way! And as you might expect, it’ll be a free-market system — a conservative alternative to Governor Shumlin’s plan.

Brock won’t reveal the full plan until next month, but he made his pre-announcement at the Republican convention on May 19. It’s only now been reported by Peter Hirschfeld at the Vermont Press Bureau. (Published in the May 25 Times Argus, available online here. Thanks to BP for the link.) Why nobody reported it until now, and why nobody else has reported it at all — well, that tells you all you need to know about the state of the Vermont news media.

At the GOP’s convention Saturday, Brock revealed the rough outlines of his conservative take on health care reform. Less government intervention, not more, Brock said, will allow market forces to work their cost-containment magic.

Yes, “magic” is about the right word. As if the free market will solve all our health-care problems. As if the free market hasn’t been responsible for the costly, inefficient, and sadly inadequate system we’ve got today.

“There is no question that we need to reform our health care system to corral runaway costs … But only a Democrat would think solving those problems requires a government takeover of the whole system,” Brock said. “What government really needs to do is to aggressively recruit lots of new insurance companies to come to Vermont so consumers have more plans to choose from.”

Only a Republican would think solving those problems requires more of the free-market juju that’s put us in the mess we’re in today. And as for recruiting new insurance companies, I have two thoughts:

— This ain’t a football coach schmoozing high-schoolers. “Recruiting,” in this context, surely means “gutting regulatory oversight and letting insurance companies do whatever they want.”

— More isn’t necessarily better. Which would you rather choose from: 500 unvetted, poorly-regulated insurance plans, each outlined in mountains of legalese? Or a couple dozen plans reviewed and approved by experts?

Elsewhere in his speech, Brock hit on all the conservative talking points about health care: tort reform, slashing regulation, and allowing high-deductible CrapCare policies that only cover catastrophic conditions.

Oh, but I haven’t gotten to the good part yet. Brock is developing RandyCare with a team of advisors, many of them so-called “conservative luminaries” from out of state.

One of them is identified in the article, and he’s a real piece of work. Details after the jump.  

Meet Tarren Bragdon, young conservative on the move. He ran a policy shop in Maine that advised Paul LePage, the Tea Party-backed Republican Governor*, on how to institute a “free-market” health system. The result, a bill called LD 1333, was passed buy the Republican Legislature and signed into law by LePage.

*The one who sneaked into office in 2010 with only 38% of the vote, in an election that included a very strong independent candidate.

Here’s what the Maine Politics blog said about the effects of LD 1333 when it was pending before the Legislature. This is presumably what Tarren Bragdon and Randy Brock want for Vermont:

L.D. 1333 would repeal many of Maine’s basic health care consumer protections, allow out-of-state insurers to market policies in Maine without a way to enforce those policies and make sure claims are paid, undermine access to quality affordable health care for older Mainers, rural residents, people with pre-existing conditions and small businesses through significant rate hikes based on where you live or your age.

Sounds peachy, doesn’t it? Sounds like Randy Brock is fully committed to the Tea Party/Koch Brothers style Republican politics of 2012.

But wait, there’s more! Last spring, Tarren Bragdon packed up and moved to Florida, where he founded a new policy shop that’s worked closely with Gov. Rick Scott (R-Asshat). His group was responsible for the bill that would require welfare recipients to be drug-tested. (It would have already required testing, except that it’s been blocked by a judge.)

Yeah, nice guy. And he’s helping Randy Brock shape his policy agenda. There are also a few locals on Brock’s team, and they’re exactly who you might expect: El Jefe General John McClaughry of the Ethan Allen Institute; Wendy Wilton, GOP candidate for Treasurer and staunch critic of Shumlin’s health care plan; and Dr. Mel Boynton, surgeon at Rutland Hospital who’s on the advisory council of the Ethan Allen Institute. A real rogues’ gallery of hard-right Vermont politics.

I don’t think we have to worry about Randy Brock taking my advice and trying to appeal to the center.

Oops, almost forgot one other little tidbit about Tarren Bragdon. When he moved to Florida, he bought a house in Ave Maria — the archconservative Catholic enclave conceived, built, and controlled by Tom Monaghan, the nutball from my home state of Michigan who founded Domino’s Pizza and, since he sold the company, has devoted himself to an extremely devout lifestyle and devoted his fortune to bankrolling conservative Catholic causes. And that’s where Tarren Bragdon feels at home.