The last thing Americans need is to buy insurance on the open market, with no benefit of group pricing. But that's what McCain would have us do. He also says we can keep our current insurance. But he's engineered a poison pill--he will remove the tax incentives for employers to offer it and for individuals paying the premiums. Furthermore any "help" must wait till a tax credit. With no effort to include group pricing, individuals costs will only go up. Indeed, the average family now already pays $12,000.
Now to Barack Obama's Health Care Proposals
Barack Obama understands that health care is the largest reason Americans go bankrupt (see work of Harvard's Elizabeth Warren).
GÇóBarack would expand coverage to millions more individuals.
GÇóObama's Plan would include:
oThe choice to keep your current plan or buy into the same plan federal employees get (this is private health insurance, not nationalized health care). A national health insurance exchange would help individuals find an affordable plan within a market system. It does not mean a new "bureaucracy." Note, however, that even if it did, government run Social Security is a model for private pensions managers in low overhead.
oReduced costs by reducing the cost of catastrophic illness for people and their employers, disease management programs, coordination and integration of care, transparency (in quality and cost), promotion of patient safety, incentives for excellence in care.
oAbility for government to negotiate a group price (disallowed in the McCain plan)
oCut premiums to families by $2500 per year
oGuaranteed eligibility
oAffordable premiums
oSimplified paperwork wo sick patients aren't overwhelmed with bureaucratic red tape.
oEasy enrollment
oPortability
oNo denial for preexisting conditions
oAll children covered
oEmployers who can't afford to cover their employees will pay into a fund for the uninsured.
oFlexibility for state plans.
GÇóBarack Obama does not propose government run health care, as John McCain falsely claims.
GÇóFor more information, go to here, here, and here.
Know someone on the fence who's troubled about the economy or inability to access health care? Print a copy of materials on the site and show him or her.