Neither party’s health proposals offer what Americans want, PI op-ed

Neither Sen. Barack Obama nor Sen. John McCain is offering a health-care reform plan that the public wants, writes Kathleen O’Connor in an op-ed piece in today’s Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

O’Connor is founder and CEO of CodeBlueNow!, an non-partisan nonprofit that is trying to build a consensus on a health-care reform in the US.

Her organization has been conducting surveys and market research to try to identify the kind of health-care reform the American public wants.

“We know a majority does not want single-payer, tax-based health care or complete individual responsibility such as health savings accounts,” O’Connor writes.

Instead, according to CodeBlueNow!’s research, Americans want everyone to be covered with at least a basic plan; want to keep the private health insurance system; and want to create buying pools that individuals and small businesses can join so they will have the purchasing power as big employers. 

The model for such a plan already exists, O’Connor writes: the Federal Employee Health Benefit Plan. 

Voters, O’Connor argues, need to put forward their own health-care reform platform, and on Thursday, Sept. 18, CodeBlueNow! will present its “Voter’s Health Care Platform” at a town hall meeting at 7 p.m. at the Bell Harbor Conference Center.

To learn more:

• Read O’Connor’s op-ed piece.
• Visit CodeBlueNow!’s website, where you can register for the town hall.
• Read the health-care reform proposals of Sen. Obama and Sen. McCain.

Tags: CodeBlueNow!, Health-care Reform, McCain, Obama

Category: Health-care Policy, Insurance