Seattle Times compares candidate’s health plans

Seattle Times health reporter Kyung M. Song has a front-page article in today’s paper comparing the health-care reform plans of Senators John McCain and Barack Obama.

“McCain’s proposal is arguably more revolutionary,” she writes.

McCain wants to encourage individuals and families to buy their own insurance rather than rely on insurance suppled by employers.

The idea is that if people must pay for their health insurance out-of-pocket, they will become cost-conscious shoppers of health care.

This, it is argued, will, in turn, force health insurers and providers to compete on price and drive down the cost of health care.

To encourage people to give up their employer-sponsored health insurance, McCain would make the employer’s contribution part of the employee’s taxable income.

Currently, employers get a tax break when they pay for health insurance and the benefits are not considered taxable income for the employee.

“To offset the higher taxes, McCain would give every every American who’s not old enough for Medicare a refundable tax credit—$2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families,” Song writes.

The problem with this approach, critics say, is that $5,000 is far too little to purchase a health insurance plan for most families, whose employer-based insurance premiums often run over $12,000 a year.

Obama’s plan would keep the existing employer-based system largely as it is and would require larger firms to purchase insurance for their employers or pay a fee.

For those who work for smaller firms or are self-employed, Obama proposes creating a huge purchasing pool that individuals and small firms could join, boosting their purchasing power so they can negotiate better deals than they could on their own.

To help small businesses and those with low incomes, Obama proposes establishing premium subsidies to make insurance affordable.

In her article, Song details these and other provisions of the two plans and tells about the struggles of some local individuals and business owners have had trying to pay for health care and insurance.

Another resource for comparing health-care:

The Kaiser Family Foundation has created a website where you can compare the presidential candidates’ health-care proposals side-by-side.

Tags: Health-care Reform, McCain, Obama

Category: Health-care Policy, Insurance