McCain/Obama Health Care Plan Comparison
The two proposals for healthcare reform that McCain and Obama have proposed are very different. Although they are dissimilar they both try and solve the same problems.
The McCain plan emphasizes making health insurance innovative, portable, and affordable. The Obama plan includes a major emphasis on increasing the role of the Federal Government in the provision of healthcare.
The major components of the McCain plan are as follows:
Allow individuals to purchase health insurance across state lines and promote less regulation for insurance companies.
Removes the employer tax benefits for health insurance and gives a tax credit of $2500 for individuals and $5000 for families to purchase health insurance individually or from employers.
Promotes the utilization of less expensive providers such as Nurse Practitioners and retail walk-in clinics.
Requires caps on medical mal-practice lawsuits.
Encourages the increased utilization of generic drugs, and allow for the importation of brand name drugs
Promotes disease management, quality measurements, price transparency and “competitive shopping” for health care.
Develops state run high risk pools called the Guaranteed Access Program (GAP) to those denied coverage due to health status. The GAP would be funded equally with a tax on insurers and funds from the federal government.
Encourages the expansion of high deductible health insurance plans with health care savings accounts (HSA).
The Obama plan contains the following key elements:
Aims to make healthcare insurance affordable to all. Those with certain income limits will receive a government subsidy. All children are required to have health insurance.
Requires a more regulated private health insurance market.
Establishes a new Public Health Insurance plan available to all uninsured as well as to small business. This plan will be equivalent to the Federal Government employee plans.
Requires most medium and large businesses to contribute toward health care insurance for their employees or toward the cost of the public plan through additional taxes. Small employers would receive a tax credit to purchase insurance for their employees
Expands the eligibility for Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.
Develops a National Health Insurance Exchange to compare health insurance plans. The exchange will require that all plans meet the same quality and efficiency standards.
Insurers would have to issue every applicant a policy (guaranteed issue) and charge fair and stable premiums that will not depend on health status.
A study by the LewinGroup indicated that the McCain plan would reduce the number of uninsured from a projected number of 48.9 million people in 2010 by 21.1 million. The Obama proposal would reduce the number of uninsured by 26.6 million. Neither approach will insure all those without health insurance. The McCain plan would result in a net increase in federal spending of $2.05 trillion over the next ten years compared with a net federal cost of $1.17 trillion under the Obama plan.
One of the large problems which both plans attempt to solve is the affordability and availability of health insurance. The McCain plan promotes free market competition for the purchase of health insurance and leaves it up to the states with assistance from the Federal government to insure the high risk. On the other hand, the Obama plan requires insurance companies to provide health insurance with a comprehensive benefit structure to all applicants. The McCain plan encourages the purchase of high deductible health insurance with an HSA while the Obama plan provides for a government insurance option available to all. The Obama plan seems to be a step toward a government single payer plan, while the McCain plan relies on the free market to solve the short falls of our present system.
In summary, the plans are quite different in the way they attack the problems of cost, quality, availability, and accessibility. The McCain plan has choice and competition at the heart of its proposal. It is patient centered, provides more choices, and uses our free market forces to make health care more affordable. On the other hand, the Obama plan puts a larger emphasis on government by greatly increasing regulations and allows for the provision of a Federal Insurance plan that is available to everyone. The increased role of the government in trying to solve our current economic crisis seems to have changed the role we place on government to solve problems. The plans are clearly quite different in their utilization of the government. The coming Presidential election will decide which direction we will pursue.