Almost Everyone Would Do Better Under the McCain Health Plan

Thursday, October 30th, 2008

So says Robert Carroll of the Tax Foundation, published in the Wall Street Journal: The McCain health-care insurance tax credit may well be one of the most misunderstood proposals of this presidential election. Barack Obama has been ruthless in his attacks. But the tax credit is highly progressive and will provide ...

Employer-provided insurance and rising medical costs

Tuesday, October 28th, 2008

McCain wants to end the tax code's bias for employer-provided insurance. Obama wants to preserve it. I've described how the tax exemption for employer-sponsored insurance coddles insurance companies, who know you must change jobs to buy from a competitor.  Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby describes how it leads to rising medical ...

Obama should support McCain’s health insurance reform

Friday, October 24th, 2008

From the Wall Street Journal: For someone running as the tribune of "change," Barack Obama showed again in last night's debatethat he sure is comfortable with the status quo on health care. He continued his recent assaults on John McCain's health reform even though it is precisely the kind of plan ...

Obama and Big Business vs. a freer health insurance market

Monday, October 20th, 2008

Tim Carney explains McCain's health care plan and the politics behind it: Barack Obama attacks John McCain's health care plan as spurring the "unraveling of the employer-based health care system." Big employers are siding with Obama. Not surprisingly, employers want employees more dependent on them. Of course they don't want it to ...

Rocky Mountain News on Obama & McCain’s health policy

Friday, October 17th, 2008

Some good insight from the Rocky's editors in their Oct. 13 editorial. An excerpt: In 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 ...

Does the president “manage the economy”?

Thursday, August 21st, 2008

Apparently some people think that "managing the economy"* is a presidential responsibility.  From Reuters/Zogby: McCain now has a 9-point edge, 49 percent to 40 percent, over Obama on the critical question of who would be the best manager of the economy -- an issue nearly half of voters said was their top ...

Detailed analysis of Obama and McCain’s health care proposals

Friday, August 1st, 2008

The Cato Institute has published Michael Tanner's detailed analysis of the presidential candidate's proposals.  As one can expect from Michael Tanner, it's very well researched, accessible, and packed with useful facts.  Here's part of the summary: Senator McCain's proposal is far from perfect, but from a free-market perspective, it appears superior to Senator ...

The big lie behind politician-controlled medicine

Friday, June 13th, 2008

The Denver Post printed the following letter of mine last week (on-line version): Re: "Who has your health at heart?" May 22 guest commentary. AFL-CIO executives John Sweeney and Mike Cerbo perpetuate the big lie behind politician-controlled medicine: that the free market is not working and that costs have been spiraling out ...

McCain in Denver this Friday

Wednesday, April 30th, 2008

From the Denver Post : John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, will hold a town hall meeting on health care Friday in Denver, his campaign says. ... They want government to make the decision," the Arizona senator was reported as saying, "I want the family to make the decision as to ...