Barack Obama for President

Before I go into the plans of both candidates, let look at the facts of our healthcare system today.

Fact 1: There are over 40 million people in this country that are uninsured.

Fact 2: Those people allow their health problems get to a point where they need to go to the emergency room for care.

Fact 3: Hospitals cannot turn away people in an emergency.

Fact 4: It is generally cheaper to treat a condition early than late, making preventive care much cheaper than emergency care.

Fact 5: Hospitals, not wanting to take a loss, will pass on the costs of unpaid emergency care to those who can afford to pay, making the cost of healthcare rise.

And we need to go over one little fact that Republicans like to ignore. Barack Obama is not proposing one government run healthcare system!

Now, that being said, it is obvious that we currently pay for the healthcare of those who are uninsured because the costs associated with their emergency care is passed on to us in the form of higher insurance premiums. So let’s see how the candidates deal with that issue as well as their other ideas.

Barack Obama has a plan for those 40+ million uninsured people. He will create a plan that is similar to what Congressmen have and allow those uninsured people to opt in. Yes, this will cost us tax dollars, but we should see a net increase in income and here is why. The extra money we pay in tax dollars to cover that plan will be less than the money we save in reduced insurance premiums.

Obama’s plan, unlike some others that existed, allow people to purchase or keep private insurance plans if they so desire. So if I like my current plan (which I do) I get to keep it! (Read the full plan here)

Now, lets look at John McCain’s plan. First and foremost, if you read his plan you will notice that he is pushing high deductable HSA plans. HSA plans are fine for some people but not for everyone.

Now, McCain would eliminate the tax incentive that businesses get for providing healthcare to their employees and would instead give money to individuals ($2500) or families ($5000) to get their own coverage. The “remainder” of those funds would go into an HSA. The only way his HSA plan would work is if the total cost of the insurance plus the deductible equaled the tax break (and we all know that wont be happening anytime soon) .

What is even more flawed with McCain’s plan is that by eliminating the tax benefit, employers may drop insurance coverage. The insurance coverage that employers get is typically negotiated for lower price and no health screenings for coverage. Without such negotiation, people would wind up paying much more for their health insurance than the $5000 John McCain is proposing. In fact, the average healthcare cost for a family of four is over $12000 (according to the National Coalition on Health Care).  And their cost is the average employer based healthcare plan (which comes at a reduced negotiated group rate).  So basically we will wind up with more uninsured people.

So what is John McCain’s plan for the uninsured? His own website states:

As President, John McCain will work with governors to develop a best practice model that states can follow - a Guaranteed Access Plan or GAP - that would reflect the best experience of the states to ensure these patients have access to health coverage.

In a nutshell, when it comes to the uninsured, John McCain has no plan. Period.

The choice is clear folks. All McCain wants to do is promote health savings accounts and has no plan for the uninsured. Barack Obama as the better, and more complete, healthcare plan.

Cross posted at Liberty and Justice for All

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 20th, 2008 at 00:20 and is filed under healthcare, John McCain. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.