April 28, 2008
What the Coot stirring again…
It’s been quite a while since I’ve made time for my much-neglected AptCoot, but I’m here today because I feel the need to make a few comments on the topic of health care in the current Presidential campaign.
I’m taking a big risk in even writing on this topic, but I’ve been away too long and sometimes there’s things that justify such a risk. This is one of those things. However, I’ll note right here at the top that my main source of income comes from a federal health care contractor, but all opinions stated on this site are mine alone (or those of approved commenters).
So, on the meat of this discussion; the different health care plans offered by the three remaining candidates hoping to replace Our Fine (lame duck) President. Both the Democrats in the race have similar plans that aim to provide health insurance to all Americans. Today Republican John McCain talked about his own plan and criticized those of his opponents. Unsurprisingly he was misleading and wrong in his approach and his facts.
Both Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton want to see universal coverage and would open the federal plan offered to Congress to the paying public as well as provide aid for the uninsured looking to buy some sort of private protection. Obama’s plan mandates that all children have some form of coverage, while Clinton extends that mandate to all Americans. McCain oversimplified things and painted those plans with the typical right wing criticism that all Democratic plans are big government making all your choices for you.
“That’s the fundamental difference between myself and Senator Obama and Senator Clinton. They want the governments to make the decisions, I want the families to make the decisions,” he told reporters. “My goal is to make health care available and affordable, including insurance, to every American family. I do not mandate it nor do I mandate other things. That’s what big government is all about and that’s the difference in philosophy that we have.”
Now I’m not quite sure what governments he’s referring to, as far as I know there’s just one here in the US, but maybe he knows about some secret other government hidden from us plebeians. But on face he’s wrong since both Democratic plans call for individual choice with plenty of government assistance in finding a plan to make sure everyone is covered.
For his grand plan, McCain is offering tax credits of $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families to help defray the costs of private insurance for all individuals. He sees these benefits as running alongside the employer-based health plans a majority of Americans now rely on. Now he may have a provision to prevent employers from dropping their coverage once his plan is in place, but that seems like a “big government” idea not in keeping with his mindset.
Instead, he’s likely to let the market sort things out. This will likely mean many companies will simply drop their ever-more-expensive health plans and let their workers take their tax breaks to the open market. This might be workable if the companies also pass along their portion of health coverage costs to the employees in the form of increased salaries and wages, but I’m not the type who believes that will be the case. No, it seems far more likely businesses will pocket the difference and pass some of it along to the execs who chopped the plans and those all important shareholders who do so much to assist the day-to-day success of these companies.
Some might say that’s still not all bad, at least there’s a tax break there to cover health insurance. Of course getting a $2,500 to $5,000 tax break might depend on actually paying that much in taxes in the first place. If that’s the case the working poor will have one heck of time a finding coverage they can afford. However, this is far from my biggest concern with McCain’s plan.
You see if everyone is pushed to the open market to find insurance on their own, the healthy will find some low cost plans aimed at providing basic coverage and catastrophic coverage with a nice “donut hole” in the middle where they have no help with intermediate health costs. That situation is bad enough, but then we get to people with existing, long-term and serious health conditions requiring regular and often expensive treatment and preventive care. I fall into that last group.
I’m considered healthy now, but my health care costs for one annual check I receive on my doctor’s recommendation far outpace the $2,500 tax break I’d be offered under McCain’s plan. It’s doubtful someone with my health history and high probability of serious future health issues could find affordable private coverage, if I could find any at all.
McCain decries European-style state-run health plans, but they work on the philosophy that the many healthy people can help cover the costs of the few, but expensive, sickly. Sure there’s more than a hint of socialism in that theory, but it works for society as a whole, and offers everyone equal access to the preventive care measures that can catch serious issues early and significantly reduce costs overall. Under his plan it’s everyone for him or herself, and the sickest in society will be left without the help of the masses.
Maybe McCain thinks the free market will find a way to solve this problem, but the free market is a cold place, and its solution would most likely be, let the sickly die off on their own, thus creating a healthier society overall. Health care costs continue to rise at almost unimaginable rates in this free market and there’s nothing to indicate they’ll be reigned in by tax breaks that negate the value of group coverage available through employers or a full federal program that provides equal access to care for all Americans.