- Daily Photo: Obama Jokes Around at G-20
- Blackwater gets replaced in Iraq
- Daily Photo: U.S. Marines Look Out for Taliban in Afghanistan
- Hillary Clinton the Tomboy and Her "Ah-Ha" Moment
- Obama Administration Sudan Envoy Headed to Region
- Daily Photo: Potential Flashpoint in Iraq
- Clinton Says New Afghanistan-Pakistan Plan Depends on Diplomacy
- Exclusive: Three Israeli Airstrikes Against Sudan
- Additional 4,000 Troops to Be Ordered to Afghanistan
- Daily Photo: Navy Submarine Trains in the Arctic
- Alarm Over North Korea Missile Prep
- Anti-Terror Stimulus? US Offers Rewards for Top Terrorists
- Daily Photo: Pakistani Women in Refugee Camp
- Condoleezza Rice Appears on "The Tonight Show"
- Diplomat and Aid Group Sound the Alarm on Darfur Camp Situation
- auto industry rescue
- Ballotwatch
- Biden, Joe
- Bush, George W.
- Clinton, Bill
- Clinton, Hillary
- Dodd, Chris
- Edwards, John
- Giuliani, Rudy
- Gravel, Mike
- Huckabee, Mike
- Hunter, Duncan
- Inauguration
- Iraq
- Kucinich, Dennis
- McCain, John
- Obama, Barack
- Palin, Sarah
- Paul, Ron
- Romney, Mitt
- Tancredo, Tom
- Thompson, Fred
- Veepstakes
- Vote 2008: Democrats
- Vote 2008: Republicans
- Washington
- White House
« Previous | Main | Next »
McCain Unveils Health Plan
Email
ShareOctober 11, 2007 5:41 PM
ABC News' Bret Hovell: Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., unveiled a detailed health-care proposal Thursday, which he says is designed to create a competitive health care market that rewards positive medical outcomes, provides tax credits to individuals who have health insurance, and to institute a sense of personal responsibility into all levels of the health care system.
McCain’s plan, announced in a speech to the Rotary Club of Des Moines, Iowa, proposes to remedy the issue that "trouble[s] the waking hours and disturb[s] the sleep of more Americans than any other single domestic issue," without the use of state power to "mandate care, coverage or costs."
"We are approaching a perfect storm of problems that if not addressed by the next president, will cause our health care system to implode," McCain said.
The McCain plan would enact changes to Medicare in the hopes of effecting change throughout the health-care system.
It would shift health-care payments from traditional fee-for-service to payment for outcomes and "coordinated care." And the government would stop paying for preventable medical errors, "rewarding quality," McCain said.
The plan would end the tax incentives provided to businesses for providing healthcare to employees, and transfer that incentive to individuals for owning health care. McCain would offer a $2,500 refundable tax credit to individuals who have health insurance, and $5,000 to families. Refundable tax credits are viewed as offering more help to lower-income individuals without a direct federal tax liability than tax deductions.
McCain's top G.O.P. rivals -- former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney -- have proposed tax deductions rather than tax credits.
McCain’s advisors would not say how much his plan will cost.
Plans offered by McCain’s Democratic rivals for the White House could top $100 billion to implement.
In a departure from the Bush administration's policy, McCain also calls for drug reimportation. He also would allow insurance policies to be sold across the state lines -- a proposal favored by Giuliani but opposed by Romney. The goal of this reform is to make cheaper policies with fewer services available to more Americans.
It has already, however, opened up McCain to criticism from the Democratic National Committee that he would "gut" state regulations which extend the availability of popular and medically important setvices.
McCain’s plan also offers veterans an opportunity to seek government financed health care outside of the Veterans Administration system, by giving them the financing options to seek their own healthcare coverage.
While McCain's tax credits and reforms are intended to make insurance more widely available, he does not establish universal coverage for the 47 million without health-insurance as a goal.
McCain policy advisor Dan Crippen said the 47 million uninsured are not one homogenous bloc, and need to be addressed with more discrete steps.
"We need to figure out ways to get them signed up and knowledgeable about their eligibility," Crippen said during a conference call with reporters.
October 11, 2007 in Thompson, Fred | Permalink | User Comments (3)
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
McCain is a waste. The media needs to dump this loser and pick up a winner in Ron Paul.
Posted by: David Allen | Oct 12, 2007 12:53:18 AM
His proposal to give a tax credit for health insurance makes sense and will benefit poorer families than just making it income deductible for taxes, since poorer families don't pay taxes. While it might "level the playing field," that still won't encourage healthy, younger people to buy health insurance. These people make up a large percentage of the uninsured.
He also proposed decreasing Medicare expenditures. This past year, Medicare costs increased 11%. I didn't see what those increases are from, but I would expect it to increase as our population ages plus so-called medical inflation, mostly caused by expensive new medications. To solve the Medicare increase, he plans to reimburse physicians for performance outcomes. As a physician who sees Medicare patients, I'm not sure of the governmental definition of "outcomes" and who and how it will be measured. If that means less pay for caring for sicker patients, guess what will happen? (Right, physicians will not want sick, complicated or noncompliant patients.) It certainly sounds like more governmental regulation. I cannot think of any industry where that helped. The physician component of Medicare expenses is quite small. Most of the costs are for hospital care, labs and medications. To make a real dent in Medicare costs, only reductions in utilization or reimbursement for those services will do it. Basically, someone will have to be paid less to keep costs down. How is that any different from the government mandating that car prices have to be reduced? Think of the market affects of that!
Posted by: Jay Sigel, MD | Oct 12, 2007 3:27:08 PM
Do the math. The typical company that offers health insurance pays about $12k per family per year. Under McCain's program those costs will no longer be tax deductible, so companies will stop paying for health insurance. McCain will then give the family a $5k tax credit to buy $12k worth of insurance. The typical family will have to pay $7k out of their own pockets to remain insured. Over the eight years of a McCain presidency, that will cost the average family $56 thousand dollars out of pocket.
Posted by: to davis | May 27, 2008 11:40:12 AM
Post a comment
