Sue Lowden, the likely GOP nominee for U.S. Senate in Nevada, has a novel plan for health care reform: haggling with your doctor over prices.

Lowden offered her proposal last Tuesday in Mesquite.

I think that bartering is really good. Those doctors who you pay cash, you can barter, and that would get prices down in a hurry. And I would say go out, go ahead out and pay cash for whatever your medical needs are, and go ahead and barter with your doctor.

Note that she used the word "barter," but as her campaign pointed out to TPM, she actually meant to say "haggle," as if that were any less absurd a notion.

I mean, either way you cut it -- haggle or barter -- Lowden's idea is absolutely insane. Just imagine:

I just broke my leg, but my doctor wanted to charge me $2,000 for a cast, so I said no way and stormed out of the office! I walked half-a-mile down the street and found a doctor who would fix it for just $1,500!

Or:

I got a heart attack, and I pitted three doctors against each other, and one of them finally agreed to save my life for just $21,000! I love bartering haggling over health care!

You'd think this was some sort of SNL skit or something like that, but Lowden is absolutely sincere in her nutso health care plan. Just totally whack-a-doodle.

It's the kind of thing that should give not just Harry Reid but every other Democrat running for office some peace of mind. Yes, on some days the poll numbers may look bad. But it's April. And the Republicans are stone-cold insane. Totally off their rockers. Batshit crazy.

So here's some advice to Harry Reid and other Democratic office holders: just take things one day at a time and expose the Republicans as the lunatics that they are. If the polls show you trailing, so what? Embrace your underdog status -- don't fight it. If people want to "throw the bums out," you're better off being seen as an underdog anyway.

Let voters actually contemplate what it would mean if crazy Republicans like Sue Lowden managed to get elected. Think of this as a trial period for voters. Every political expert seems to think that Sue Lowden is going to be the next U.S. Senator from Nevada.

And what is she doing with her newly won prominence? She's proposing a health care plan that would depend on people haggling with their doctors over prices. That won't play well -- not well at all.