You don't need excellent hearing to know the presidential candidates are turning up the volume on the rhetoric machines.

Judged on soundbites describing the other candidate's health care plans, John McCain will deregulate the health insurance industry entirely, freeing mendacious insurers to offer expensive insurance only to the healthiest while casting others into the streets. And Obama will lead a full-scale government takeover of healthcare, with long lines snaking around the corner for mammograms and heart surgery.

Well, there are headlines and there is fine print.

I've taken a few key issues, read the fine print, and looked at the similarities and differences of approach between the Senators seeking promotion. Call me a cynic, but the more I read the more I see both candidates tiptoeing quietly to the middle--to please those all important indie voters.

Similarity: Both candidates let you keep your employer-provided health insurance if you have it and like it. 

Difference: Obama wouldn't change this at all. McCain would make workers pay taxes on the value of the health insurance their employers provide. But he'd provide tax credits of $2,500 to $5,000 to offset it. It's hard to figure out whom this would benefit.

Similarity: Both candidates will allow people who don't have employer insurance to join big pools of others uninsureds, spreading the risk and moderating rates for the entire group.

Difference: Obama would do this nationally, allowing people to buy into a new public plan or a private program offering a menu of insurance choices similar to the one government workers choose from. McCain would push that responsibility to the states, which he'd encourage (but not require) to create risk polls.

Similarity: Both would provide assistance to those who can't afford to buy into the pooled-risk plans.

Difference: Obama would provide government subsidies based on ability to pay. McCain's tax credits would put money into the pockets of those shopping for insurance in the open market. But he'd offer additional subsidies only for the poorest and most difficult-to-insure.

Big difference: Obama would require insurers to offer policies to everyone, even those with preexisting medical conditions. McCain's plan is silent on that issue.

Similarities: Both plans allow competition in the private market to control prices.

Difference: McCain would remove regulations on insurance companies, permitting them to sell policies in any state. Obama would require insurers to offer a minimum level of coverage to participate in these plans.

Similarity: Both candidates would require hospitals, doctors and others to disclose their prices and performance data. Both say this would lead to savings, as market forces would reward quality and affordability.

Difference: None that I can see

Similarity: Both candidates believe investments in health information technology will lead to greater effiency and savings.