With nearly 12% of the nation reporting healthcare as the issue that is most important to them in the upcoming election (Polling Report Inc.). The Republican Presidential nominee John McCain has proposed a unique vision for health care reform aimed at providing a health care system in which everyone can afford and access the treatment and preventative health care they require while enabling citizens the opportunity to take more control and become more proactive in their health care management and financing. Provoked by health care spending in the US reaching an all time high in 2007, with roughly $2.3 trillion dollars being spent, and with spending being projected to reach the $3 trillion mark in 2011 (Poisal), the McCain plan aims to drive health care costs down through competition and faith in the free market system our economy is based on. Additionally, in 2007, there were 45.7 million people in the US without health insurance, making up approximately 15.3 percent of the total population (Reinberg). These people are of great concern and are at the forefront of the health care debate, with the question being how to address the staggering amount of uninsured. And until the enormous health care costs can be contained, the number of uninsured will remain high, with National surveys showing the high costs of health insurance as the primary reason people remain without coverage (The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation). Senator McCain believes that competition will not only improve upon the number of uninsured, but will improve the quality of health insurance overall. Therefore, McCain does not support federally mandated universal health insurance, nor does his plan intend to create a new public plan. Instead the McCain administration aims to drive down health care insurance costs through the deregulation of the health insurance industry, allowing consumers to purchase health insurance across state lines, thus, triggering competition between providers, encouraging new providers to arise, and furnishing a greater variety of insurance plans. As the McCain website states, “Families should be able to purchase health insurance nationwide, across state lines, and their policy should follow them from job to job.”
Recognizing that certain populations are categorized as “undesirable” by insurance providers, making it nearly impossible for them to receive health insurance coverage, Senator McCain anticipates working with states to create a federally-supported Guaranteed Access Plan for these people who are denied coverage due to pre-existing conditions. Premiums in the plan would be limited and financial assistance would be given to those below a certain income level, further addressing the nation’s number of uninsured.
In effort to motivate people to have more control over their health care and their health care dollars, McCain plans to encourage and expand the benefits of Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), high deductible health insurance plans that are paired with a tax preferred account, for families. The McCain plan also intends to move away from Employer-Based health insurance coverage, proposing a reformation of the tax code in which every family would receive a direct refundable tax credit for $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families, based on need, to go towards their health insurance coverage. While the exclusion of the value of health insurance plans offered by employers from workers’ taxable income would be eliminated. Families would be able to choose the plan that best suits their needs and not be limited by a government system or employer-based plans limitations. And by eliminating the tax loop hole offered to employers, the trend of employer-based insurance as a benefit will diminish and the employees will receive an increase in wages to supplant health insurance coverage. Currently, those who are offered insurance are paid less and thus get a much smaller tax benefit than upper-income employees through the exclusion from taxable income of employer-sponsored health benefits (Stuart M. Butler).
In 2007, the US experienced the first annual decline in the number of uninsured in seven years, which was largely propelled by an increase in the number of children receiving health insurance coverage through government funded programs (Reinberg). Senator McCain says he would increase awareness and promote the use of these government programs, as well as expand community health centers to better support the local population. In a Wall Street Journal-NBC Survey nearly 50 percent of the American public say the cost of health care is their number one economic concern (Wall Street Journal-NBC), while 23 percent of the uninsured reported changing their way of life significantly in order to pay medical bills (Chernew). The lack of adequate health insurance and coverage in general has become a public health nightmare, and is nearing epidemic status. It is an issue that has to be addressed appropriately, and that is what Senator John McCain, Republican Presidential nominee, hopes and promises to do.
