Experts disagree over the likelihood of success to be derived from the healthcare reform plans made by presidential candidates Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).
With healthcare costs soaring and the economy worsening, both candidates agree that requiring cost and quality transparency from healthcare providers will help contain healthcare spending. From there, their plans differ.
McCain's plan would offer refundable tax credits of $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families to buy their own health insurance or to offset the cost of paying taxes on their employer's premium contribution. The recipients could deposit tax credit funds in excess of premium in a health savings account.
McCain's plan came under fire this week when the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) estimated 7.8 percent of Americans in each state would lose employer-sponsored coverage under his plan. EPI's report said McCain's plan would disintegrate employer-provided coverage leaving some 11 to 27 million people nationwide without coverage.
Senior Republican tax-writer Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said Tuesday that he wanted to "set the record straight": McCain's healthcare tax credit proposal would provide a bigger tax benefit to people than they are currently receiving. McCain's plan would make Americans better off, Grassley said.
On the other side of the aisle, Obama says he would create a national insurance exchange to cover individuals through private health plans. There would be no mandate that individuals purchase insurance. However, parents would be required to purchase insurance for their children. The federal government would set rules and standards for insurers and subsidize premiums for low-income individuals who chose to enroll.
According to a September article published in the (italics) Journal of Health Affairs, University of Michigan professor Thomas Buchmueller and his coauthors argue that the McCain plan would strip consumers of protections while producing few actual gains in providing coverage.
Joe Antos of the American Enterprise Institute and coauthors fault the Obama plan for attempting to fix American healthcare from the top down, rather than getting at the economic root of the problem - current incentives that drive healthcare costs.
A study by the Divided We Fail movement, organized in-part by the AARP, found the majority of swing voters think neither candidate's plan is adequately addressing healthcare. Ninety-four percent of those surveyed said healthcare and financial security are too big for any one candidate or party to fix.
The Divided We Fail movement reports it has currently collected pledges from 346 of the 535 members of Congress to support their movement for change. McCain and Obama are among them.
Do you think healing the American healthcare system is "too big" for any one candidate or party to fix? Send your thoughts to Senior Editor Diana Manos at diana.manos@medtechpublishing.com.