Rocky Mountain News on Obama & McCain’s health policy
October 17th, 2008 | by Brian Schwartz |Some good insight from the Rocky’s editors in their Oct. 13 editorial. An excerpt:
tags: McCain, ObamaCareIn either case, you probably value some degree of choice. If that’s a high priority, we’d recommend John McCain’s plan. Barack Obama’s plan extols choice, too, but over time leads in another direction.
McCain’s health care proposal hinges on a $5,000 tax credit for families ($2,500 for individuals) under which individuals could either keep their current insurance or go out and buy coverage, even shopping across state lines to get the best rates.
And under McCain’s plan, if you don’t spend the entire allotted amount on coverage, the remainder can be deposited in Health Savings Accounts (which McCain wants to expand).
The Obama plan, meanwhile, gives birth to a bouncing new bureaucracy: the National Health Insurance Exchange, which would offer private policies and a public insurance plan “based on benefits available to members of Congress” - generous benefits, in other words. All wanting insurance in the public plan would have to be covered under the same premium, without regard to lifestyle choices such as smoking that increase health risks. Obama’s plan purports to maintain personal choice - and to some exent does at first - but a growing entitlement program will almost certainly crowd private insurers out of the market.
Over time, for that matter, some federal entity would have to decide what would be added and subtracted by the public plan - in order to control costs, among other reasons. Former Sen. Tom Daschle, a longtime universal health care proponent and Obama adviser, has touted his idea for a Federal Health Board to make those sensitive choices. That also makes us nervous.
