Why Obama's Health Plan is Better

By: Doctor A
Published On: 10/10/2008 4:28:57 PM

When I was a neurology resident, there was one patient who entered the ER with a rapidly progressing central nervous system disease. Try as we might, we could not deduce what illness he had. It quickly became clear that this man was gravely ill and was likely going to die despite our efforts. But did we give him our best effort? No, in retrospect, we did not.

You see, this man had no health insurance. His lack of insurance made a tremendous difference in how he was treated. Once this man had the basic exams and treatments, he was shuffled from hospital to hospital. No hospital wanted to take the financial burden of caring for him any further. His family had to follow him from city to city as each medical facility tried its best to load him off on another.

This was not the way we should have been caring for a dying man and his family. Nevertheless, financial interests overcome compassion. The way this one man was treated was no exception, unfortunately. Every day, thousands of people are treated with less dignity, less respect, and less effort because they can't afford their health care.

If McCain's health plan comes to fruition, however, even more Americans are at risk of being without health coverage and receiving substandard care. Obama's health plan will make health care affordable for all- so that no one is left without coverage. McCain's plan, on the other hand, will de-regulate health care and provide disincentives for employers to provide coverage to their employees.

A recent article by Joe Klein in Time describes why McCain's plan is not going to work.

"McCain's plan is a half-baked vestige of Reagan-era ideology: it tilts the incentives away from employer-provided health insurance and assumes that people will act in their enlightened self-interest if they are thrust out into a free market. That's absolutely true when it comes to buying refrigerators. But health insurance is complicated and scary; most people don't have the time or expertise necessary to make wise choices."

http://www.time.com/time/polit...

In this time of economic uncertainty, we can't afford to take risks with our health coverage. We need assurance and stability. Obama will give us just that.  

Comments



2 More Comments (norman swingvoter - 10/10/2008 7:19:31 PM)
1) John Mccain as said he wants to open up health insurance just like the banking system.   That certainly hasn't worked out very well.

2) John McCain is very hasy on how pre-existing conditions are going to be handled.  Providing some protection is just NOT good enough. From his website

John McCain Supported The Health Insurance Portability And Accountability Act In 1996 That Took The Important Step Of Providing Some Protection Against Exclusion Of Pre-Existing Conditions.

I thought this act mainly covered patient record privacy. If anyone knows, maybe you clarify this.  However, I do know that exempting pre-existing conditions by insurers can quickly make a health insurance plan nearly useless for many.



Ultimately (tx2vadem - 10/11/2008 11:51:50 AM)
Obama's plan is better because it gets us to universal coverage.  That is essential to controlling cost.  It could go further though.  I would really like to see us evaluate best practices in other industrialized nations and see how we can implement those here.  One idea that I really like from Germany is that if we are going to keep the many private insurers model, we should bar them from making a profit.