[NPInfo] McCain the Health radical?

[Stephanie Walker]

I'm no financial whiz, but doesn't this mean you'll still pay $18,000  
for lousy health care, just pay $2500 less to the IRS so your net  
health insurance premiums would then only total $13,500 for lousy  
health care? That looks like the wimpiest of incremental reforms I  
can imagine. Why doesn't any of these politicians take on the big  
private insurance companies? (Actually, we know why not--lobbyists  
and campaign funding.)


Again, I'm showing my ignorance, but I'm thinking there is a built-in  
incentive in the present pre-tax dollar system, for employers to fund  
their employees' health care premiums, but I can't remember how that  
works. If that's true, if it's legislated out of existence, and  
employers have no incentive to offer health care benefits, wouldn't  
that just make the situation even worse? THose insured now thru their  
jobs could lose their benefits.

Stephanie Walker, FNP

On Jul 31, 2008, at 10:44 PM, David Mittman wrote:

> I pay close to $18,000 a year in after tax dollars for the worst  
> health care coverage I have ever had.
>
> July 30, 2008, 9:06 am
> Why McCain Is the Radical on Health
> Posted by Jacob Goldstein
> John McCain “is proposing the most fundamental health-care reform”  
> of the presidential campaign, a McCain adviser argues in an op-ed  
> in this morning’s WSJ.
>
> This struck us as a rather surprising argument, given that Barack  
> Obama’s proposal includes mandating insurance for all children and  
> creating a national public insurance program to cover those who  
> don’t have access to insurance through their employers.
>
> The op-ed, John C. Goodman of the National Center for Policy  
> Analysis, focuses on McCain’s proposed changes to the tax code,  
> which constitute the main thrust of his health plan.
>
> Goodman writes that the current system is “extremely arbitrary,”  
> because it allows employers to pay for health insurance with pre- 
> tax dollars, but doesn’t extend that break to the growing number of  
> people whose employers don’t provide insurance.
>
> McCain’s plan would get rid of the tax break for employer-sponsored  
> insurance, and replace it with a fixed insurance tax credit —  
> $2,500 for individuals, $5,000 for families — that people could use  
> whether or not they get their insurance through work.
>
> This would create a “fairer, more efficient system with a much  
> better chance of insuring the uninsured and controlling health  
> costs at the same time,” Goodman argues.
>
>
>
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