TODAY’S HEADLINES: Health Plans
Obama’s health plan may help more uninsured: report
Reuters, October 2, 2008
An analysis of the two starkly different approaches to reforming the U.S. health care system offered by John McCain and Barack Obama suggests Obama’s plan has the best chance of making health care:
• more affordable,
• more accessible,
• more efficient and
• higher in quality.
Obama’s plan:
• would cover 34 million of the nation’s projected 67 million uninsured people in 10 years.
McCain’s plan:
• would cover 2 million of the nation’s projected 67 million uninsured people in 10 years.
Obama’s plan:
• seeks to build on the current employer-based insurance system, which now provides coverage to 160 million people (more than 60 percent of the population under 65);
• would require all employers except small businesses to either offer health insurance or contribute to the cost of coverage;
• would replace the current individual insurance market with an insurance exchange in which small businesses and those without access to coverage could buy a private or public health plan with tax credits;
• eases qualifications for low-income families to be covered under Medicaid, the state-federal insurance program for the poor, and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.
McCain’s plan:
• seeks to put health insurance into the hands of individuals by removing tax breaks for employer-paid health benefits and offering tax credits of $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families;
• eases state insurance restrictions [to] allow people to buy policies across state lines;
• would expand existing state high-risk pools for people who cannot get individual insurance because of health problems;
In its first year, Obama’s plan:
• would reduce the number of uninsured by 18.4 million,
• would cost $86 billion.
In its first year, McCain’s plan:
• would reduce the number of uninsured by 1.3 million,
• would cost $185 million.
About 20 million people would lose their employer-sponsored coverage under McCain’s plan, but 21 million would gain coverage on the individual market.
Over 10 years:
• Obama’s plan would cost $1.6 trillion
• McCain’s plan would cost $1.3 trillion
Neither plan would offer universal health coverage.
Obama’s plan would mandate health insurance coverage for children.
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