Libertarian Bob Barr was on NPR's Weekend Edition this morning and he talked about this idea of deregulating healthcare. He doesn't believe everyone should have healthcare -- it's not the government's job.
The NPR host reminded him that many people can't afford health insurance (not aware of the problem?) and he said yes, it's expensive, but he contends if you remove regulations, then it would be cheaper.
I would say there is little difference between this philosophy and McCain's. The republican idea of healthcare is it's not the government's job. Does anyone truly think that healthcare would be a priority in a McCain administration?
When has a republican ever cared about insuring people?
Obama's memo on the pitfalls of McCain's plan:
When has a republican ever cared about insuring people?
Politico: With families increasingly worried about their economic security, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is opening a major assault on what he charges is a “radical plan” by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to decentralize health insurance.
Bill Burton, national press secretary of the Obama campaign, charged: “Millions [would] lose the health care that they have.”
Obama is unveiling his new assault at a rally in Newport News, Va., this afternoon, and the campaign is following up with TV ads, radio spots, mailers and grass-roots events in battleground states, aides said.
“What John McCain doesn’t tell you is that his plan calls for massive deregulation of the insurance industry that would leave families without the basic protections you rely on,” Obama says.
“So here’s John McCain’s radical plan in a nutshell: He taxes health care benefits for the first time in history; millions lose the health care they have; millions pay more for the health care they get; drug and insurance companies continue to profit; and middle-class families watch the system they rely on begin to unravel before their eyes.”
....
Burton told Obama’s traveling press corps this morning: “In the next phase on the campaign trail, on TV, in the mail and on the radio, we are going to do two things: 1) Educate voters about voters about Senator Obama’s plan to get all Americans affordable, acceptable health care; and 2) Make sure that voters know what John McCain isn’t telling you about his health care plan.
Obama's memo on the pitfalls of McCain's plan:
Saturday, October 4, 2008
TO: Interested Parties
FR: Obama-Biden Campaign
RE: Five Pitfalls of the McCain Health Plan
FIVE PITFALLS OF THE MCCAIN HEALTH PLAN
John McCain’s “radical” health care plan will undermine the health care that millions of
Americans have come to rely on, and while shifting costs onto individuals and hurting the budgets of working families. In five crucial areas the McCain plan will make America’s already fragile health care system worse, making it more difficult to solve our nation’s health crisis.
1. Pays for a New Tax Credit by Taxing Employees’ Health Benefits for the First Time in History. John McCain and Sarah Palin argue that their health care plan is budget neutral, and that it includes a new $5,000 health care tax credit to help families purchase insurance. What they don’t tell you is that to pay for their plan, they will tax the health benefits that workers receive from their employers for the first time in history. Moreover, McCain’s health care tax credits would go directly to insurance companies, while his new tax on employee health premiums would come directly out of workers’ pockets. This tax punishes those who currently have generous health insurance, and over time will result in higher taxes for tens of millions of middle-class families.
• OBAMA PLAN: Offering tax credits to make health care affordable for all
Americans, without imposing a new tax on employer health benefits. Barack Obama’s health care plan is fully paid for by reducing health care costs, eliminating overpayments to HMOs and rolling back a portion of the Bush tax cuts for families making over $250,000 per year.
2. Forces at least 20 million people to lose employer-based coverage. By taxing employee health benefits, the McCain plan will make it more expensive for employers to provide coverage. As a result, independent analyses show that employers will drop at least 20 million people from coverage and force them to seek insurance in the individual market, where costs are higher, quality is lower, and coverage more uncertain. By moving more risk upon the shoulders of individuals, it raises insurance costs for everyone nationally. And by forcing millions into the individual market, people with pre-existing conditions from asthma to cancer will be at risk of not being able to get health insurance at all.
• OBAMA PLAN: Building upon the employer based health-insurance system by letting workers keep the health insurance they have or to purchase a different plan in a new pool that ensures quality and affordable coverage.
3. Undermines the ability of people who do have coverage to get services from cancer
screenings to vaccines. The McCain plan undermines state laws that require insurance
companies to cover bedrock health care services such as cancer screenings and vaccines. The plan empowers insurance companies over doctors and nurses, while making America less healthy. In fact, John McCain recently explained his intention to deregulate health insurance along the lines that the banking industry has been deregulated over the past decade.
• OBAMA PLAN: Protecting existing state regulations and increasing protections for
American families by requiring health insurance companies to cover all Americans
regardless of health status and outlawing unreasonable rate and fee increases.
Read the rest.
If you're up for some reading, the Center for American Progress reviews cost cutting under Obama and McCain's plans.
