In part 1 of this blog, I looked at current practices for buying health insurance. For part 2 of this blog, I took pieces from the McCain website and the Obama website to look at the changes they propose and asked myself whether this was change I could live with.
Senator McCain is for a free market, doesn’t that leave us in the same place we are now? What would be the dramatic difference? At JohnMcCain.com, I pulled up his healthcare outline. The total pages of information, three, count’em 3, which is not enough information to really know what he stands for. I felt this was an effort to look like change, but it contains little substance. I’m just going to pick out pieces that are relevant to this blog. In the McCain plan:
1)“ An important part of this plan is to use competition to improve the quality of health insurance with greater variety to match people’s needs, lower prices and portability. Families should be able to purchase health insurance nationwide, across state lines.”
My comment: We have competing companies, but it has not lowered the price! There is ample variety to match people’s needs, but the problem becomes what they can afford, and education on the part of the broker. Often the brokers are too quick to get the job done and they sell clients policies they don’t understand. So why does he think this is a change from the current crisis? McCain and Obama both share the same view on this issue, but I’m not sure their decision to push for more companies to compete will bring down the price, smaller companies can't offer the range that large companies do. For example, my husband represented a company that did not include coverage for colonoscopies and mammograms in any of their plans, but the larger companies do. The larger companies have multiple plans to choose from because of their size.. unfortunately.
2) “While still having the option of employer-based coverage, every family will receive a direct refundable tax credit-effectively cash of $2500.00 for individuals and $5K 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. Those obtaining innovative insurance that costs less than the credit can deposit the remainder in expanded Health Savings Accounts.”
My comment: Both my husband and I love this idea! But McCain doesn't offer much to small business owners in the way of helping them cover their employee benefits with tax incentives for taking on the responsibility. NPR did a piece on healthcare and the campaigns. NPR asked healthcare advisors for McCain and Obama answer questions from small business and individuals, which simply confirmed what I was finding for myself. As a matter of fact, I couldn't find anything for the small business owner! Another place to understand the Obama attack ad about the tax credit is politifact.org
