Health Care by John McCain

I was recently chided on another blog for pointing out someone's grammatical error instead of looking at real issues that affect Small Town America. While I stand by my poking fun at someone on a Republican rant who called the President a "Commander and Chief," I gladly yield to my fellow poster and take a look at something McCain would like to implement were he chosen as our "Commander--in--Chief," something I feel would directly impact Small Town America.

Health Care

To simplify, McCain would like to completely revamp the health care industry in the following ways: he encourages employees to purchase health insurance themselves rather than rely on employer provided insurance; he would facilitate this by giving tax credits to off-set the cost of said private insurance; he would take a "free market" approach to health care industry, thus encouraging competition between the insurance companies, thus driving down premium costs; according to the New York Times, "he would provide refundable tax credits of $2,500 to single people and of $5,000 to families" (1).

At first glance, it doesn't look too bad.

Here are the problems:

1) The money that would otherwise be paid by your employer for your insurance now goes in your pocket. Good right? Nope. This now becomes income, upon which you must pay taxes.

2) The tax credits sound great, right? "While still having the option of employer-based coverage, every family will receive a direct refundable tax credit - effectively cash - of $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families to offset the cost of insurance. Families will be able to choose the insurance provider that suits them best and the money would be sent directly to the insurance provider" (2). He is even willing to send the money directly to the insurance company for you. What isn't mentioned? "[T]he average cost per family for health insurance is $12000" (3).

3) "While the change would primarily affect those with gold-plated insurance policies, health analysts point out that middle-income workers with conventional coverage could conceivably pay more in regions where insurance costs are high." (1)

I don't know about you, but this Small Town American cannot afford an extra $7000 a year. Unless I got a nice raise--which, with the economy as it is now, doesn't look like it will happen anytime soon.

To sum up I offer this from AFL-CIO (4):

McCain's Health Care Plan:

Increases Costs to Workers. The modest tax credit McCain wants to give people to cover his new tax would cover less than half the average health premium, leaving workers to pick up the difference. Also, by promoting high-deductible Health Savings Account (HSA) plans, which provide fewer benefits at higher costs, he will make the high costs of individual insurance even worse.

Leaves Workers at the Mercy of Big Insurance Companies. McCain’s efforts to "eliminate the bias" toward employer-based health care will encourage employers to stop offering health care, pushing workers into an unregulated private insurance market to fend for themselves. Big insurance companies will be free to weed out people with health care needs, charge excessive premiums and limit benefits.

Makes Health Care Harder to Get. Pushing workers into the private health care market and promoting HSAs will encourage insurance companies to attract only the healthiest people, driving costs up overall. Insurance companies can decide to refuse to cover people with preexisting conditions, such as cancer survivors. Retirees will have a particularly hard time getting health care.

For the complete list, visit: http://www.aflcio.org/issues/politics/mccain_healthcare.cfm

"The AFL-CIO union movement represents 10.5 million members, including 2 million members in Working America, its new community affiliate. We are teachers and taxi drivers, musicians and miners, firefighters and farm workers, bakers and bottlers, engineers and editors, pilots and public employees, doctors and nurses, painters and plumbers—and more."


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(1) http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/01/us/politics/01mccain.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
(2) http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/19ba2f1c-c03f-4ac2-8cd5-5cf2edb527cf.htm
(3) http://www.time-blog.com/swampland/2008/09/mccains_health_care_tax_increa.html
(4) http://www.aflcio.org/issues/politics/mccain_healthcare.cfm

~STA