The McCain Health Plan's Good Idea for Health Care Reform--Likely Going Down With the Candidate

John McCain would reform the American health care system by providing big tax incentives for it to transition from being employer-based to one built on a system of individual responsibility. He would do this by eliminating the longtime personal tax exemption on employer-provided health insurance and replacing it with a $2,500 individual, and $5,000 family, tax credit for those who have health

Demystifying U.S. Health Care Spending--Some Surprising Information

Paul Ginsburg, of the Center for Studying Health System Change, has just authored a new report, "High and Rising Health Care Costs: Demystifying U.S. Health Care Spending." The report is part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Synthesis Project.This paper reviews existing literature in search of a more clear understanding of U.S. health care costs, the drivers, and the trends.It is an

Time to Get Real--On the Economy and Health Care Reform

I just got a call from a reporter at one of the major news organizations to talk about the chances for health care reform.We both commented on the almost surreal environment we are all in. I'm not sure if my friends and neighbors are in denial or just numbed by the recent cascade of events in the financial world. Up on the Hill and in the presidential campaigns it's business as usual when it

The Big Elephant in the Room During the Presidential Debate

Last night Tom Brokaw asked Barack Obama and John McCain to prioritize health care, Medicare/Social Security, and energy. Neither of them backed down from their promises to deal with all of them.When Jim Lehrer tried to challenge them at the last debate on their ability to do all of the expensive things they want to do he got pretty much the same answer.About the only two people in America that

What I'm Telling the Health Care Business About the Future

Last week I did a post, The Chance for Major Health Care Reform in Either 2009 or 2010 Is Now Zero.I made the point that the bailout the Congress is now voting on is on top of a 2009 projected federal budget deficit that the White House has already estimated to be $500 billion. Add to that the $300 billion in deals the feds have done for the likes of Freddie, Fannie, and AIG. Then we have the

The Chance for Major Health Care Reform in Either 2009 or 2010 Is Now Zero

A couple of weeks ago I did a post, The Pretend Presidential Debate on Health Care--The Health Care Press Needs to Force the Presidential Candidates to Get Real on Health Care "Change".In it I made the point that facing a $500 billion budget deficit next year, the sunset of the Bush tax cuts in 2010, fixing the alternative minimum tax problem once again, and the cost of the Freddie and Fannie

AIG and Regulation Versus Deregulation

As I posted earlier today, I believe the feds did the right thing in making sure AIG did not fall.But as the dust settles, that takes us to another big question--the question of more or less regulation generally and, more specifically for readers here, more or less regulation for the health insurance industry.The first thing to note is that the existing state regulation of the insurance industry

The Pretend Presidential Debate on Health Care--The Health Care Press Needs to Force the Presidential Candidates to Get Real on Health Care "Change"

Let's pretend that either Senator Obama or Senator McCain will be able to implement their respective health care reform plans if elected. Should be easy--we've been doing it for months now.Or, we can get real and expect them to do the same.For all the arguments both are making that they are change agents, including over the candidates' competing health care reform proposals, is this dirty little

"Lipstick on a Pig"--The McCain Campaign is Defining the Fight

The quickest route to a political loss is to let the oppostion define the fight.Anyone who listened to just 10 seconds of the Obama "lipstick on a pig" sound bite knows he wasn't talking about the Alaska governor.But what this whole dust-up tells us is that the McCain campaign is defining the debate and the Obama side can't get their message out.Not that long ago the Obama campaign was

Sarah Palin on Health Care--A Free Market Republican

Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has very little on her health care policy resume from her short time in office as Alaska's Governor but what she does have fits right in with Senator McCain's strategy to use the market more effectively in bringing down America's health care costs and improving access to the system.Her health care efforts have focused on two things in Alaska:

The Voters Aren't Upset Enough About Health Care--And Why Should They Be?

The health care issue has a history of being named by voters as one of the biggest problems we face--until the problem de jour comes along and pushes it off the list. In 2008, that seems to be happening again with the economic downturn, the mortgage mess, and $4 gas surpassing health care as the big issues.When asked to name the most important financial problem facing families today by the Gallup

State High Risk Pools For the Uninsured--Who Would Want To Be In Them?

What do we do with people who are uninsurable because they have a pre-existing medical condition?That is a particularly important question as both McCain and Obama propose reforming American health care by building on the private health insurance system.One of the solutions being discussed--by McCain among others--is to use state-based risk pools. Under McCain's plan heavily dependent on an

If McCain Picks Romney He Will Never Again Be Able to Criticize Obama's Health Plan

Mitt Romney seems to be at the top of the list when it comes to speculation over who John McCain will pick for his vice presidential running mate. I am not sure if that is what John McCain is thinking as much as the Romney people, trying to boost their guy, want us to think.But if McCain picks Romney, it will make for an interesting health care debate this fall.The Obama Health Plan is a virtual

The National Coalition On Benefits' Oppostion to the Wyden-Bennett "Healthy Americans Act"--Maybe They Like It After All?

The National Coalition on Benefits is a group of more than 150 of America's biggest corporations as well as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable.They wrote a letter to Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Bob Bennett (R-UT), cosponsors of the bipartisan "Healthy Americans Act," telling them that their bill was a non-starter because it dared to mess with ERISA. The Wyden-Bennett bill

So I Guess the HMOs, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Business Round Table, and Over 150 Big Corporations Are Opposed to McCain's Health Plan?

That's the only conclusion I can come to after having read the letter the National Coalition on Benefits has written to the authors of the Wyden-Bennett Healthy Americans Act.Wyden-Bennett is a comprehensive health care reform proposal that would largely replace the existing employer-based system of health insurance with one based on individual responsibility and individuals purchasing coverage.

"I Hear the Train a Comin"--What Does That Johnny Cash Refrain and the Employer-Based Health Care System Have in Common?

OK, maybe it's a stretch but bear with me.I heard a senior exec from a big health plan say the other day that it's hard to believe we will ever see the end of health insurance distributed primarily through the workplace in favor of an individual-based health insurance system. In fact, much of the health insurance industry is lining up behind staying with the system we know best and the one who

Comparing John McCain's Health Care Plan to Barack Obama's Health Care Plan--What's the Big Idea Difference?

This election is different than any other on the issue of health care because both candidates are giving us serious blueprints to reorganize America's health care system and those blueprints are very very different.As voters, you have a huge and critically important choice on health care.There are dozens of details upon which they differ and for those I would point you to my comprehensive posts

A Detailed Analysis of Senator John McCain's Health Care Reform Plan

A Detailed Review of Senator John McCain's Health Care Reform PlanMcCain’s thinking on health care couldn’t be more different from Democrat Barack Obama.McCain very rightly points to health care costs as the biggest health care issue, "We are approaching a 'perfect storm' of problems that if not addressed by the next president will cause our health care system to implode."Therefore, his focus is

Would Either Barack Obama's Health Plan or John McCain's Health Plan Contain Costs?

With the health care reform efforts in Massachusetts presenting us with an incomplete result for an unsustainable cost, just how the presidential candidates' health care plans will contain costs is an even more important issue.The short answer is neither offer any kind of silver bullet solution to controlling America's health care costs. Both Obama and McCain propose similar generally good cost

Administrative Costs and the Individual Health Insurance Platform for Health Care Reform

A new study by the "Center for American Progress Action Fund" says that Senator McCain's health reform plan based upon individually owned and controlled health insurance would increase administrative expenses by $20 billion.The Center is an organization headed by former Clinton chief of staff, John Podesta. So, they clearly have an agenda.But they also have a point.As I have said many times