Health Care Reforming: John McCain, Barack Obama Battle on healthcare

Health Care Reforming: John McCain, Barack Obama Battle on healthcare. How workable are the presidential candidates’ health reform plans? Here’s a summary of their proposals and a list of online resources for more information.

John McCain and Barack Obama’s health reform plans are different both in their approaches to solving problems and their potential effects on voters. But to choose wisely, you have to do some homework. To help, we offer a guide to online resources that analyze how well the candidates’ proposals might work.

John McCain would . . .
Eliminate current tax exclusion for employer-paid health insurance.

Provide refundable tax credits of $2,500 for individuals or $5,000 for families, for everyone who obtains private health insurance — employed or not. If insurance costs less than the value of the credit, the remaining funds could be deposited in a health savings account.

Provide a variety of insurance choices, national and across state lines, that would not be dependent on a job.
Work with state governors to increase insurance pools for people uninsurable on the individual market.

Deregulate insurance markets, allowing insurers to sell across state lines. People could buy less costly, less comprehensive policies in states with fewer mandates.

Pass medical malpractice reform.

For more details, see McCain’s full healthcare plan.

Barack Obama would . . .

Require employers (some small businesses would be exempt or subsidized) to either offer health insurance to employees or pay a tax that would be used to help uninsured people get insurance.

Provide subsidies for low-income Americans to help them afford coverage.

Create a new national health plan, similar to Medicare, for the uninsured and small businesses.

Require that all children have health insurance.

Regulate private insurance plans to end risk-rating based on health status — a system that can render people like cancer survivors or diabetes patients uninsurable.

Establish a federal reinsurance program to protect businesses against the costs of workers’ expensive medical episodes.

I make i the 6 digits and I already pay full premium for health insurance of my family. Honestly, the Obama plan makes more sense. $5000 would only buy the Individual + Spouse + 2 children 2.5 months of insurance. Since 2002 insurance companies have been offering individual plans, if they were so good we would have all started to switch.

Barack Obama and Joe Biden’s Plan
On health care reform, the American people are too often offered two extremes – government-run health care with higher taxes or letting the insurance companies operate without rules. Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe both of these extremes are wrong, and that’s why they’ve proposed a plan that strengthens employer coverage, makes insurance companies accountable and ensures patient choice of doctor and care without government interference.

The Obama-Biden plan provides affordable, accessible health care for all Americans, builds on the existing health care system, and uses existing providers, doctors and plans to implement the plan. Under the Obama-Biden plan, patients will be able to make health care decisions with their doctors, instead of being blocked by insurance company bureaucrats.

Under the plan, if you like your current health insurance, nothing changes, except your costs will go down by as much as $2,500 per year.

If you don’t have health insurance, you will have a choice of new, affordable health insurance options.
Make Health Insurance Work for People and Businesses – Not Just Insurance and Drug Companies.

Require insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions so all Americans regardless of their health status or history can get comprehensive benefits at fair and stable premiums.
Create a new Small Business Health Tax Credit to help small businesses provide affordable health insurance to their employees.
Lower costs for businesses by covering a portion of the catastrophic health costs they pay in return for lower premiums for employees.
Prevent insurers from overcharging doctors for their malpractice insurance and invest in proven strategies to reduce preventable medical errors.
Make employer contributions more fair by requiring large employers that do not offer coverage or make a meaningful contribution to the cost of quality health coverage for their employees to contribute a percentage of payroll toward the costs of their employees health care.
Establish a National Health Insurance Exchange with a range of private insurance options as well as a new public plan based on benefits available to members of Congress that will allow individuals and small businesses to buy affordable health coverage.
Ensure everyone who needs it will receive a tax credit for their premiums.
Reduce Costs and Save a Typical American Family up to $2,500 as reforms phase in:

Lower drug costs by allowing the importation of safe medicines from other developed countries, increasing the use of generic drugs in public programs and taking on drug companies that block cheaper generic medicines from the market
Require hospitals to collect and report health care cost and quality data
Reduce the costs of catastrophic illnesses for employers and their employees.
Reform the insurance market to increase competition by taking on anticompetitive activity that drives up prices without improving quality of care.
The Obama-Biden plan will promote public health. It will require coverage of preventive services, including cancer screenings, and increase state and local preparedness for terrorist attacks and natural disasters.

A Commitment to Fiscal Responsibility: Barack Obama will pay for his $50 – $65 billion health care reform effort by rolling back the Bush tax cuts for Americans earning more than $250,000 per year and retaining the estate tax at its 2009 level.