Healthcare

8 Thoughts on the Issues #2

In my first thoughts on the issues, I tackled abortion in kind of a random fashion. It was a purely emotional reaction to the abortion issue, something I feel rather strongly about. For my other seven items on the issues leading up to the election, I decided to put a bit more research behind my posts. Today, I'm going to look at the health care plans of both candidates, and then I'll draw some conclusions.

John McCain

As you would expect, McCain's web page on his health care plan is less about the plan itself than it is about attacking Obama. If I were offering his plan, I'd stick to talking about my opponent as well. The crux of McCain's plan is a change in the way in which health care benefits are taxed. Currently, your employer is excluded from paying taxes on the amount they pay for your health benefits. Under the McCain plan, this exclusion would be replaced by a tax credit available to each family. McCain wants to create a health insurance market for individuals by removing the tax incentive for employer's to provide insurance. McCain asserts that this would save money.

Barack Obama

Obama's plan is to strengthen the employer provided health care system, while increasing options for those who do not already have health care through an employer, including a public plan that would be similar to the plan that members of Congress now have. Obama mandates that every child must be covered by insurance, but does not mandate that every adult have insurance. Obama believes that he can cut health care costs for everyone by aggressively resolving inefficiencies in the health care system. Additionally, Obama would provide consumer protections, especially for those with preexisting conditions.

My Thoughts

I'm a liberal and I want universal health care and single payer insurance. Since neither candidate is offering this approach, I'll have to choose one or the other.

It is no surprise that the Republican candidate is advocating a market based approach to solving the problem of the uninsured. The goal is for the market to drive down costs allowing more people to purchase their own insurance, with the help of the previously mentioned tax credit. There are no mandates of any kind and very few consumer protections. Will it save money? According to a quarter of experts in the Health Affairs journal:

Senator John McCain's (R-AZ) health plan would eliminate the current tax exclusion of employer payments for health coverage, replace the exclusion with a refundable tax credit for those who purchase coverage, and encourage Americans to move to a national market for nongroup insurance. Middle-range estimates suggest that initially this change will have little impact on the number of uninsured people, although within five years this number will likely grow as the value of the tax credit falls relative to rising health care costs. Moving toward a relatively unregulated nongroup market will tend to raise costs, reduce the generosity of benefits, and leave people with fewer consumer protections.

I'm puzzled by the lack of a universal mandate in Obama's plan. It would increase the size of the risk pool and help lower overall costs. Other than this, I'm fine with Obama's plan. It mandates coverage for all children which is a must. It might be the best bet to get true reform as well. Most people are happy with their employer based insurance and Obama's plan will strengthen the existing system while offering an alternative system for those without coverage.

Obama's plan accomplishes two things better than McCain's plan: it will do more to reduce the cost of health care, and it will bring us closer to universal coverage.