McCain, Obama and Healthcare Reform - Who Will You Vote For?
During the past several weeks, the number one question asked of me has been, "Which of the candidates has the better healthcare reform plan?" I've been reluctant to answer because, in all sincerity, I don't believe either one has suggested a plan that will work to provide us with the care we need, in an equitable way, at a cost that is acceptable.
But I will share what I know to help you make up your mind:
1. We already have universal healthcare in America. Universal healthcare simply means everyone has access -- and they do. If they don't have insurance, they show up in emergency rooms where they can't be turned away. If this doesn't make sense to you, you'll want to read more about universal healthcare.
2. Universal healthcare is not socialist healthcare. Neither candidate is talking about socialism, regardless of what the other candidates might suggest. If this isn't clear, learn more about the differences between universal healthcare and socialist healthcare. 3. Our healthcare system access woes cannot be solved unless EVERYONE participates. If a candidate suggests otherwise, then that candidate is in for a rude awakening. Unless the healthy people who don't need care participate (pay) in addition to the people who do need to access healthcare pay, it will be unaffordable. (By the way, neither candidate will state that everyone must participate -- they are looking for votes, not reality. The only candidate who was bold enough to suggest that everyone must participate was Hillary Clinton.) |
4. Forcing employers or employees to pay taxes on health benefits (McCain) will not expand coverage, regardless of the "rebate" they might receive later. Instead it will force employers to give up the benefit all together -- they just won't offer health benefits any longer.
5. Until and unless we understand rationing, we cannot understand how reform will work. Neither candidate is bold enough to use the word, yet, rationing will be at the heart of any reform effort. If you aren't sure you understand rationing, make yourself familiar with it. It influences the care we get today, and it will influence it even further in the future.
6. Transparency is a key ingredient. Our system will never function effectively or efficiently until patients have the information they need to make wise choices. We need to have transparency of quality -- meaning -- we need to know what doctors and facilities will provide a safe environment. And we need transparency of cost, meaning, as long as the pricing is hidden from us, and as long as it is inequitable, we can't make smart consumer choices.
7. The argument that the government will interfere with healthcare choices, or the relationship between a patient and a payer, is bogus. Interference happens when care is denied -- meaning -- test and treatment determinations are made more by the payer than by the doctor and patient partnership. I hear far more frequently from patients who have been denied care by private insurance than from Medicare. In fact, I have never heard from someone who has been denied care by Medicare.
8. Neither candidate is talking about patient education, and it is, perhaps, the most critical need of all. Just as we need access, we need to understand how to be wise patients, making the best choices for both our health and our wallets. With the exception of those of us patient advocacy experts who work on teaching our readers and listeners how to be smarter when they access healthcare, we hear nothing at all about this aspect of healthcare reform. Neither candidate has said word one.
If you spend time on either candidate's website, you'll see that each one talks a great deal about healthcare reform. Senator McCain gives his ideas, but little information about how he will execute them. Senator Obama gives his ideas, with plenty of information about how he would execute his plan, including how he will pay for it. Both suggest universal healthcare. And in my (not so) humble opinion, neither plan will work.
As each of us makes up our minds about who we will vote for, we need to remember that it's not only the next president who will determine the future of healthcare access in America. Your congressional representatives and state representatives will influence the choices made, too.
I wish it was easy to give you an answer about who will do a better job -- but it's not! Hopefully this post will at least give you some background to help you make up your own mind.
Learn more about Universal Healthcare
Learn more about Healthcare Reform
Learn more about Senator McCain's plan
Learn more about Senator Obama's plan
Comments
In the near term, neither plan would affect me personally (I’m currently covered under my husband’s non-managed care plan, and he works for a university that provides excellent benefits and will likely continue to do so regardless of who’s elected).
But having twice attempted, as a freelancer, to buy individual health insurance with a couple of preexisting conditions (neither of which have the potential to be life-threatening or even require hospitalization or whatnot), McCain’s plan sounds markedly worse to me. I know from experience that $5000 a year wouldn’t come close to covering a plan that would meet my basic needs, if I could even get coverage at all. And I worry that his plan would, in the end, make it very, very difficult for many people with preexisting conditions to get *any* insurance, if it would in fact result in fewer employers offering health benefits.
Out of curiosity, what’s your opinion on HR 676?
I love your take on things….very honest opinions and helpful information.
I did, however, wsh for a fourth poll choice, as I was torn. I am voting for Obama, based only IN PART on his healthcare reform platform.
I agree with you (it seems, by what I read above) in that I think Hillary Clinton has put forth the best healthcare reform plan so far….just my two cents
I don’t agree with your statement that we already have universal health care. It’s true that you can show up in an emergency room and get treatment, but only if you need care for an acute condition. If you need care for a chronic but stable condition, they don’t have to treat you. In your article on universal healthcare (the one you link to), you wrote: “Universal healthcare” or “universal coverage” refers to a scenario where everyone is covered for basic healthcare services…” — but emergency rooms do not provide what I consider to be basic healthcare services.
People are blind and do not see that Obama is full of hot air!
Where’s he going to get all the money for his plans? People need to wake up and really listen to the all the words he’s not talking about. I guess alot of people are happy paying higher taxes and getting less.
That’s big government and that’s Obama the socialist!
I STILL can’t decide….it does not sound like either knows what to do, maybe that should be an option in your poll, a “neither sounds appropriate to me” or something. I just have not had the time to sit and listen to the candidates so it makes me feel like I should not vote as I don’t feel well enough informed. My fault, I know, but neither really does anything for me.
To BamBam:
Obama will work to fund his healthcare plan.
He arrives in the White House with an already established skill along with the motivation to “go through the federal budget line by line” and get rid of programs that are not working, in order to fund the ones that can. When going through the line items, he plans to use “a scalpel rather than a hatchet to cut spending, freeing $ up for his 21st century, forward-looking plan.
Your concern is really more about efficiency and executive bookkeeping abilities than it is the size of the the government.
BamBam,
Actually, you are in error on two counts.
First, Obama is the only candidate talking about how he will fund and execute his plan. McCain talks about ideas, but gives no information about how he will execute them. So he may, in actuality, need to spend more money for his plans an have to raise taxes — he just isn’t saying one way or the other.
Second, I suggest you go to the article about what socialistic healthcare really is — because neither candidate is making any suggestions that even approach socialized medicine.
There are many reasons to choose one candidate over another, no matter what their healthcare reform plans may be. But the cost will be the cost, no matter which candidate wins. The real question is, whose pocket will all that money come from? Yours? Or Mine? Or both? Rich people? or poor people? People who need care? Or people who don’t? And how efficiently will it be spent?
Before you begin throwing mud at Obama, why don’t you ask McCain what his plan will cost and where HE thinks the money will come from? Once you have that answer, please come back and share it. Because so far, he hasn’t shared that information with the rest of us. And that’s truthfully the only way we can compare apples to apples.
Thanks for stopping by.
Trisha
Victoria asked about HR676…. this is the bill that has been introduced to move the US to a single payer (government) system. It’s also been dubbed “Medicare for all” because it would put all of us on a plan like Medicare.
The answer is — I see real plusses, and a few minuses. What is very interesting to me is that the majority of doctors in the US (last figures I saw are 67%) support this single payer idea!
I would see it working potentially like schools do now — we fund our kids’ education through grade 12 in a public system and it works for all the basics, in most places. For parents who want their kids to have extra, they can send them for ballet or piano lessons, send them to a tutor or even send them to a private school.
The downside is the potential for even more fraud — a huge problem.
My ideal scenario would be HR676 for the basics (preventive, primary care) and the potential for us to purchase optional extra insurance for extended problems, mostly for later in life.
Anyone else with an opinion on HR676?
Trisha Torrey
I would like to take this opportunity to cancel your newsletter being sent to me. Obama is the worst, scariest possibility that I can think of.
I don’t want hundreds of choices. I want healthcare when I need it or when my children need it. Every wealthy country in the world provides healthcare for their citizens but us. Why are we quibbling over socialism? McCain receives free healthcare for being a senator even though he is married to a millionaire. It is a disgrace that we can’t provide healthcare for children for all income levels. Obama’s plan is not perfect. I think it is a work in progress, but of the two candidates I feel more confident that he will find a way to make it easier for everyone to have access to healthcare, which is better than none at all if you can’t afford it.