Gaps in McCain's Health Plan

Posted by Kathleen Stoll, Stand Up for Health Care at 5:05 PM on August 18, 2008.

McCain touts consumer choice as a highlight of his plan, when, in fact, it would leave many with no choice at all.

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Presidential hopeful John McCain recently addressed the LIVESTRONG Summit in Columbus, Ohio, speaking supportive words about cancer research and the need for health care reform. His speech was nice enough, but will Senator McCain's plan really help people with cancer?

One of the major features of the McCain proposal is allowing individuals to use a tax credit to purchase their own private health coverage. This tax credit would be available if you buy coverage in the individual market. According to Senator McCain, free market competition and the individual market is the path to consumer control over choice of plans:

The health plan you choose would be as good as any that an employer could choose for you, or even better....

Come again? First of all, I am not sure I can bargain one-on-one with an insurance company. Second, the size of the tax credit would be a fixed amount, even though insurers can charge premiums up to 10 times higher for some people compared to others-for the exact same health insurance plan.

For example: What if you have cancer or your family has a history of cancer? If insurers decide that the cancer is a "pre-existing condition," the lack of regulation of the individual market means that people in most states may be flat-out denied the coverage they choose, charged a much higher premium, or forced to wait for coverage of essential medical services. Even worse, you could buy a policy, pay premiums, and later see your health insurance yanked out from under you because the insurance company has determined that you should have known that you had cancer, even though you had no diagnosis from your doctor.

Under McCain's plan, many of us don't have choices in the individual market. Instead, the McCain plan takes some of us and puts us in a separate pool with very limited choices of coverage. These GAP plans (yes, he really calls them this) are modeled after the existing high-risk pool plans that currently exist in many states.

This is Senator McCain's concept of "choice." Can't we do better?

Tagged as: health care, mccain

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$940 per month would have covered my wife for 18 months at the end of which [Report this comment] Posted by: Raymond Emerson on Aug 18, 2008 2:06 PM Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] she would be cancelled for life. She has Lupus. No insurance company will cover her. She is 15 years away from medicare. I am retired. Employer insurance can't happen. John McCain has nothing to offer but misery. Obama doesn't believe that he can get anything through congress. Hillary thought she could get medicare extended to everyone. There is no relief in sight. I actually believe that the republicans hope she will die. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] » If Hillary had come out for "Improved Medicare for All" Posted by: bthespoon » Will you let it go already, Hillary isn't running! Posted by: chuckjs » "Hillary thought she could get medicare extended to everyone" Posted by: bthespoon » I have no idea... Posted by: chuckjs You should call this McCain's Sick Plan [Report this comment] Posted by: suzdav2 on Aug 18, 2008 7:25 PM Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] McCain, being a multi-millionaire, has no concept of what the rest of have to go through to get through life. This is a useless stupid plan which would put us all at the mercy of Insurance companies. The republicans should call it the "You're on your own" plan. If we elect him, SHAME on US! [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] » RE: You should call this McCain's Sick Plan (Amen!) Posted by: Old Skeptic What??? You don't like having addicts running your drugstore?? [Report this comment] Posted by: GarrisonPayneLeonard38H on Aug 19, 2008 5:44 AM Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] I recall from a long-ago Psych class that "bargaining" is one of the features of addiction. Addicts swear that they can master their addiction, and describe all kinds of grandiose schemes to do it, but they are just bargaining with their own delusions. Very few addicts can begin or maintain a "recovering" status without intervention and support from others who are neither addicted nor codependent. Similarly, the prime movers in our Greed Culture -- at its apex, nothing more than a group of money and power addicts -- will never be cured of their parasitic quest for MORE. Left to their own devices, they will simply rearrange their schemes -- same pig, new lipstick -- and then sell, sell, sell the new racket as The Only Cure. Their enablers -- the ten-percenters on Wall Street, Madison Avenue, and Capitol Hill who feed off the Greed Culture -- will make sure that the pig's lipstick is this season's hot fashion shade. McCain is nothing more than one of the enablers, and unsurprisingly he is also a billionaire wannabee. Will the DimOldCrots will give us anything better? The best intentions can be beggared by K-Street's continuing influence on both sides of the aisle. I hope that something Progressive will emerge from an Obama presidency, but whatever it is will be only an interim step on the road to a true single-payor healthcare system. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] If YOU don't want U.S. President Hothead, PLEASE DO THIS [Report this comment] Posted by: SinglePayerActivist on Aug 19, 2008 5:59 AM Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] NOW ... please get reminders to follow the schedule. Why? Because LATER will be TOO LATE. Many people think that Obama will be elected and that he will suddenly change his mind and take the lead to get us non-profit financing of health care via non-profit single-payer national health insurance. Those people are wrong. Read on please! The use of that logic will get us Mr. Hothead (McNasty in high school) for president. Obama made it perfectly clear (to the large crowd asking for single-payer that day) in his April 2007 community meeting on health care that he requires hundreds of thousands of Americans to communicate to their U.S. Representatives (435 districts times 2 thousand citizens per district). He called it a mandate from the people (to overcome the influence of the for-profit health insurance companies.) So, you can either follow the schedule and start communicating ... or you can automatically play the high and very real risk of votes going to Nader and McKinney, who propose single-payer: simple, efficient, non-profit financing of health care. Many Americans are learning the facts about health care and that Obama and Clinton (as Obama communicated multiple times) have essentially the same proposals, which amount to maintaining (and expanding) the for-profit health insurance companies and also expanding the government bureaucracy. What do YOU want? To be treated like an idiot by the current campaigns that will surely convince you that we do NOT want what EVERY other industrialized country has (HINT: peace of mind regarding health care finances, longer and healthier lives, job security due to being more globally competitive) ..... or ..... follow the facts, follow the schedule and get Obama for president and get our lives (longer and healthier), our money (huge savings per person), and our jobs (returning to the U.S. instead of leaving). Let me know by asking for reminders to help you follow the Schedule Bob Haiducek, Bob the Health and Health Care Advocate [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] » I agree with everything you said except Posted by: bthespoon » If Obama were standing up for REAL Truth and Justice Posted by: bthespoon Those of us with insurance are stopping real reform [Report this comment] Posted by: bthespoon on Aug 19, 2008 6:05 AM Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] ...and feeding the beast that is the problem (health insurers) while fearing (thus stopping) the real reform that our country so desperately needs (HR-676 or "Improved Medicare for All, which would unite ALL Americans into one large protective pool instead of leaving us divided and conquered in multiple small(er) health insurer "risk groups"). HR-676 would save hundreds of billions of dollars (>$350 billion) and hundreds of thousands of devastated American lives every year. Now you're going to get to find out how the rest of us who are in small groups live NOW (in fear of becoming sick because whatever coverage we're paying for is totally unreliable due to it being profit not people driven). Maybe then you'll (finally) "get" what we're talking about. The only real protection any American under 65 has now is to work for a large (AND supportive) enough employer. Now we'll all get to have the same YOYO ("Your're On Your Own") coverage that almost all Americans who don't work for large corporations (or the government) have NOW. If you think McSame's health care plan is terrifyingly awful (because it is) then please also stop and think for a minute that millions of Americans are already living the same nightmare now. Thanks for all your help. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] There Are Gaps in Everybody's Health Plans! [Report this comment] Posted by: Liberty G on Aug 19, 2008 11:45 AM Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] Whatever the gaps in McCain's plan, the others are also full of holes. Hilary's much-vaunted "universal" plan was/is just a scam. It would mandate US to pay the bill - giving us nada! Obama is at least the most honest of the bunch - he notices the fact that those of us without health insurance don't have it because...SCOOP! WE CAN'T AFFORD IT! McCain's plan actually does offer a little something other than a new tax on those without moola. None of them will actually help me and my husband - or the majority of the economically challenged uninsured. Don't throw the word, "affordable" at me, either - it's an empty promise. I'm on the much vaunted Medicare - which is virtually useless. I wouldn't even have Part B if a couple of my sons didn't take on the premiums - for now. If they can't continue, I can't afford the $100 a month premiums. And, like the cheapo insurance Hilary would force us to buy, we couldn't afford the deductibles and co-pays, so couldn't go to the doctor anyway. We'd be lucky to eat. What's needed is the means by which many other countries, especially England and Germany, cover everybody for a pittance compared to what we spend - complementary and alternative medicine. Gets better health results, less dangerous (lots of our health problems are CAUSED by the Big Pharm takeover of our medical system), and much, much cheaper. Too bad our corporatocracy won't allow it. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] so the game is... [Report this comment] Posted by: ellie on Aug 19, 2008 12:12 PM Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] pre-existing condition popping up, you didn't know it was in your DNA and presto... canceled for life... mcrage thinks you'll get picked up by state insurance??? what's he smokin??? many states and the list is growing fast, are eliminating adult and in many cases child health care benefits due to falling state tax revenue... aka: forclosures, dropping fast state income taxs because of so many large employers closing up and other financial issues... hell, around here school districts can't even use school buses anymore or issue discount bus passes for municipal bus lines but require kids to be in school... bottom line... if this is his bright idea, who's gonna pay for it... states are beyond broke, especially here, ohio... [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] McCain's idea won't work because [Report this comment] Posted by: Old Skeptic on Aug 19, 2008 2:37 PM Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] McCain's plan relies on everyone buying private insurance policies, but he would only allow $2500 for an individual and around $5000 for a family. With the cost of premiums rising constantly, fat chance of getting a decent policy for so little. Fat chance of getting anything at all if you have even a hint of a pre-existing condition or are over 50! We need a universal, single-payer insurance plan with a nationwide risk pool. Call it Medicare for the Masses, or whatever. It should cover all Americans for any necessary medical care. Private companies could offer supplemental policies for elective procedures like unnecessary plastic surgery, classier hospital rooms, etc., but the things that people really needed would be covered by their government insurance. And oh yes, to be sure that Congress didn't try to nickel and dime it to death, merge their insurance into it! It would give them a strong incentive to keep the program solvent! [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

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» If Hillary had come out for "Improved Medicare for All" Posted by: bthespoon

» Will you let it go already, Hillary isn't running! Posted by: chuckjs

» "Hillary thought she could get medicare extended to everyone" Posted by: bthespoon

» I have no idea... Posted by: chuckjs

» RE: You should call this McCain's Sick Plan (Amen!) Posted by: Old Skeptic

» I agree with everything you said except Posted by: bthespoon

» If Obama were standing up for REAL Truth and Justice Posted by: bthespoon

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