Senator John McCain on Health Care
John McCain believes that controlling costs is key to providing affordable health care, saving Medicare and Medicaid and preserving health insurance benefits for retirees. Senator Mccain has three primary goals in mind: paying only for quality care, offering diverse medical insurance choices responsive to individual needs, and restoring a sense of personal responsibility. He advocates market solutions, such as allowing providers the ability to offer health insurance nationwide. He believes individuals should have a variety of health plans to choose from and would offer tax credits and health savings account options to help pay for them. He favors allowing safe prescription drugs to be imported and more generic drugs to be on the market to help control prescription drug costs.
Senator McCain Will Work Towards Establishing A Guaranteed Access Plan
As President, John McCain will work with governors to develop a best practice model that states can follow - a Guaranteed Access health Plan or GAP - that would reflect the best experience of the states to ensure these patients have access to health insurance coverage. One approach would establish a nonprofit corporation that would contract with insurers to cover patients who have been denied insurance ( without prior group coverage and those with pre-existing conditions) and could join with other state plans to enlarge pools and lower overhead costs. There would be reasonable limits on premiums, and assistance would be available for Americans below a certain income level. Official Campaign Site
Senator Barack Obama On Healthcare
Senator Obama will make available a new national health insurance plan to all Americans, including the self-employed and small businesses, to buy affordable health coverage that is similar to the plan available to members of Congress.
Senator Barack Obama’s National Health Insurance Exchange
Barack Obama’s plan will create a National Health Insurance Exchange to help individuals who wish to purchase a private insurance plan. The Exchange will act as a watchdog group and help reform the private insurance market by creating rules and standards for participating insurance plans to ensure fairness and to make individual coverage more affordable and accessible. Insurers would have to issue every applicant a policy, and charge fair and stable premiums that will not depend upon health status. The Exchange will require that all the plans offered are at least as generous as the new public plan and have the same standards for quality and efficiency. The Exchange would evaluate plans and make the differences among the plans, including cost of services, public. Official Campaign Site
It will be interesting to see what happens at the Democratic National Convention tonight. I was looking at the schedule and I didn’t see anything on the agenda for health care. I was reading a little further and saw that Michelle Obama is on an un-paid leave from the hospital that she works for in Illinois, that happens to decline medical services to poor un-insured people. I am wandering if we might hear something about this tonight or will this subject get pushed under the rug? What I am really trying to say, is that I hope we here more about what changes are going to take place in our healthcare system. Here is the bottom line. United States economy is declining, which means job loss, which means individuals losing health insurance through their employer, which means more sick people due to no health insurance coverage and not seeking preventative care, which means more demand for health care services, which means the price for out-of-pocket health care continue to rise (supply and demand). Where does it all end?