Think this financial meltdown is bad? Imagine adding a total Health Care meltdown! That’s exactly what would happen if John McCain gets his hands on our health care.
John McCain’s health plan would bring about a dramatic shift in how millions of people get health insurance coverage. He would let people shop around for plans offered by insurers in other states. New Yorkers could look to Alabama, for example, or any other state when shopping for coverage.
“Why not? Don’t we go across state lines when we purchase other things in America?” McCain asks.
The idea sounds simple, but has huge implications.
Yes it does, but I’ll let you read the rest as this does an excellent job of detailing McCain’s proposal and the ramifications of it as well as comparing and contrasting it with Senator Obama’s.
This may be the best comparison, but it’s not the only comparison. The candidates may be talking about the economy but many people have carefully detailed their health care plan. Here’s another one:
Wrong Prescription: McCain’s Healthcare Plan
Deregulation has worked so well for Wall Street, John McCain wrote recently, that we should use the same approach to fix our healthcare system. In the September/October issue of Contingencies, the magazine of the American Academy of Actuaries, the Republican presidential candidate asserts, “Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation.”
That’s right. JOhn McCain has publicly stated that we need to fix the health care system with the same type of deregulation that he voted for in the banking system. But there’s more.
McCain’s Health Care Plan Radically Irresponsible
In reality, you don’t have to be a health-care expert to immediately understand just how fundamentally radical the McCain plan is. Whether or not you are a fan of free-market health care, what is it if not radical to propose dismantling the employer-based insurance structure that covers 150 million Americans and has been the foundation of our health care system since the end of World War II? Before the war, about 10 percent of Americans had health insurance. By the mid-1970s, 90 percent did.
30 years ago, 90 PERCENT OF OUR COUNTRY had Health insurance. Today, that percentage has dropped to about 2/3rds. What happened? That’s simple. Republican Administrations. Since 1980, the number of uninsured has consistently risen higher and higher. And when the Clintons tried to turn it around they were shut down by the Republicans. So how does McCain’s program (a Republican’s program) compare to what the Clinton’s proposed 15 years ago?
By comparison, the Clinton administration’s much-reviled plan of the early 1990s looks like mere tinkering, albeit tinkering that came with a 1,000+ page instruction booklet. The McCain folks have certainly learned the virtues of vagueness. Their plan does not trouble itself with much detail beyond “take apart group coverage, elevate individual coverage and trust that the whole thing puts itself together again even better than before.” In other words, this is faith-based economics for a stunning one-seventh of the U.S. economy.
To put the $2.4 trillion spent annually on health care into perspective, it equals three-and-a-half Wall Street bailouts all strung together. It is an apt analogy, since McCain says that health care is plagued by an excess of regulation and a surfeit of free-market competition. Not surprisingly, fervent ideologues of the far right believe they have found a fellow traveler, and they don’t shy away from the “r” word.
Catch that part? McCain’s plan equals three-and-a-half Wall Street bailouts all strung together.
That is roughly 2.1 TRILLION DOLLARS! Ouch. But there’s still more:
Let’s See McCain Survive Without Gov’t Health Care
Taking to the phones, Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and former Florida Sen. Bob Graham determinedly laid into McCain for proposing a policy that would result in massive Medicare cuts and higher taxes for some insured.
“Think about this proposal in the context of others, [and] you have to wonder about what John McCain and his running mate’s priorities are for America,” said Casey. “This is not putting your country first, it is putting a radical, misguided, reckless ideology ahead of the interest of families of America.”
Casey went so far as to challenge McCain to “survive without his government provided health insurance,” in order to better understand the struggles of those uncovered by their employers.
This is not putting your country first, it is putting a radical, misguided, reckless ideology ahead of the interest of families of America.” Yes, that’s John McCain, who has clearly demonstrated during this campaign that he fully believes in Vince Lombardi’s philosophy….
Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.
But there’s more: The Wall Street Journal reports:
McCain Plans Federal Health Cuts
John McCain would pay for his health plan with major reductions to Medicare and Medicaid, a top aide said, in a move that independent analysts estimate could result in cuts of $1.3 trillion over 10 years to the government programs.
The Republican presidential nominee has said little about the proposed cuts, but they are needed to keep his health-care plan “budget neutral,” as he has promised. The McCain campaign hasn’t given a specific figure for the cuts, but didn’t dispute the analysts’ estimate.
In the months since Sen. McCain introduced his health plan, statements made by his campaign have implied that the new tax credits he is proposing to help Americans buy health insurance would be paid for with other tax increases.
But Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Sen. McCain’s senior policy adviser, said Sunday that the campaign has always planned to fund the tax credits, in part, with savings from Medicare and Medicaid. Those government health-care programs serve seniors, poor families and the disabled. Medicare spending for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30 is estimated at $457.5 billion.
Ok, as one of the millions people without health insurance, I can state CATEGORICALLY that Tax Credits WILL NOT WORK! And by cutting MEDICARE and MEDICAID we are ONLY going to have MORE PEOPLE without health care.
The problem is that people without health care still get gravely ill. And hospitals cannot turn them away. So they will still be treated but most likely won’t be ablt to pay. So this means an increased burden on hospitals who are even now worried about their profit margins.
The Wall Street Journal does a good job of breaking down and comparing McCain’s proposal with Obama’s. McCain’s numbers just don’t cut it. But then again, McCain has been quoted as saying he’s just not good with economics.
OK, so here is a side by side comparison of both plans based strictly on facts at hand:
Report Compares Health-Care Platforms of Presidential Candidates
“As we face a crisis in the financial system, we must remember we are also facing a crisis in the health system,” Karen Davis, president of The Commonwealth Fund, said during a Wednesday teleconference announcing the results of a new report entitled, The Presidential Candidates’ Health Reform Proposals: Choices for America.
The Commonwealth Fund is a private, independent foundation that supports research into health-care issues.
The current problem with our health care system is basically simple…..
1)there is a HUGE amount of waste and fraud.
2)the uninsured are straining the system.
That being said, here is an article that addresses that #2 problem.
Obama’s health plan may help more uninsured
An analysis of the two starkly different approaches to reforming the U.S. health care system offered by John McCain and Barack Obama suggests Obama’s plan has the best chance of making health care more affordable, accessible, efficient and higher in quality.
The report, released on Thursday by the Commonwealth Fund, sized up the presidential candidates’ plans for dealing with a health care system which has left nearly 46 million people uninsured and many more underinsured.
According to the report, Democrat Obama’s plan would cover 34 million of the nation’s projected 67 million uninsured people in 10 years, compared with just 2 million covered under Republican John McCain’s plan.
Look, if you are concerned about health care, if you are concerned about the economy, if you are concerned with the health of the future of our great nation, I implore you to take the time to carefully read these links. They provide a great amount of information.
There are lots more and I could take this further, but if this isn’t enough, then it’s hopeless and our future is doomed because we cannot deal with a 2 trillion dollar bailout of our health care system.
Other links:
McCain’s Health Care Plan Would Limit State Regulatory Authority, Leaving People Vulnerable
Children’s Defense Fund Founder: McCain Will Leave Millions Of Children Uninsured
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