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9.17.2008

Comparing Health Care Plans - More coverage vs. less...

If you are still on the fence of who to vote for this year, hopefully, you've started to look at the issues and where the candidates stand. The republicans are leaving the fate of the middle class to market forces while providing aid and comfort to the corporate and well - off as always. While Obama is trying to march us a toward universal health care which is likely to include tax increases and more regulation on the way.

The Wall Street Journal had an analysis and an Op-Ed this week.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain's health-care plan
would make only a small dent in the ranks of the uninsured, at best
covering about five million more people, two new reports conclude.

Democratic nominee Barack Obama would cover more people --
eventually adding about 34 million, according to one of those reports,
by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center

Sen.
Obama's plan would be costly, the center concluded: $1.6 trillion over
10 years. Sen. McCain's would cost nearly as much: $1.3 trillion over
the same span. The center doesn't give either campaign credit for
initiatives to reduce the cost of health care.




Here's how the New York Times and the Washington Post breaks it down:

New studies from the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center and the policy
journal Health Affairs suggest that Obama's proposal would eventually
cover more than 34 million of the roughly 47 million Americans
currently without insurance, while McCain's would cover at best 5
million uninsured.


Obama's plan relies on a variety of measures to reduce the number of
uninsured, such as increasing the number of people in programs such as
Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program, requiring
all children to have insurance and offering subsidies for people who
cannot currently afford insurance.


Obama's plan was crafted with the intention of creating universal
health insurance
, although both studies suggest some people would
remain uninsured. McCain, meanwhile, touts his plan as one that will
rely more on the consumer market to reform health care.



The journal Health Affairs has a more detailed analysis of both plans and a few suggestions of their own.

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