Most of us don’t pay much attention to Medicare. We may notice that money is taken out of our paychecks to pay for our future Medicare coverage. We may have heard that Medicare has financial problems. We might have heard our parents or grandparents talk about Medicare. But if you are interested in how John McCain’s individual private health plan proposal would work, it’s worth taking a look at the Medicare drug benefit. The Medicare drug benefit exemplifies the problems of a private health insurance model.

Most of us don't think about health care issues in terms of our parents, but perhaps we should.

A new analysis in the National Journal Magazine says that yes, maybe McCain’s health plan would save some young, healthy folks a few dollars in the premiums they pay, but the cost to Americans who aren’t so young and/or so healthy would be great.

Ronald Brownstein explains that most employers would stop providing health insurance benefits if they are stripped of the tax incentives for doing so. Older workers who lose employer health insurance might not be able to find insurance on the private market (they have difficulty finding insurance now). Or, if they found insurance, the cost would be prohibitive. The McCain tax credit would not be sufficient, and these workers would end up paying more than they do now.

Finally, a politician who isn't afraid to tell the truth: The highlight of last night's debate was when Barak Obama had the decency to say what we all know, that health care is a right. John McCain wouldn't say that last night, and Sarah Pallin didn't say it last week, either.

That's because the McCain health plan is more about increasing business for private health insurance companies and making it easier for them to cherry pick who they want to insure than about expanding and protecting affordable, quality health care for everyone.

Don't we all know someone like Obama's mother, who had to fight to get her health insurance coverage while fighting a terminal illness? Obama said he would address the insurance company practice of trying to avoid paying by labeling conditions as pre-existing. McCain, on the other hand, would eliminate the laws that require insurance companies to like mammograms, or vaccinations, or maternity care.

An article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal shed some light on how John McCain plans to fund those tax credits he believes will help people buy health insurance: He plans to rob Medicare and Medicaid of what independent analysts project to be $1.3 trillion dollars over the next decade in order to fund his proposal. Even those of us who don't have a connection to Medicare and Medicaid need to worry. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122315505846605217.html#printMode.

During Saturday Night Live's parody of the vice presidential debate, Tina Fey as Governor Palin responded to the question on Senator McCain's health care propoosal by saying she was going to ignore it.

http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/vp-debate-open-palin-....

Unfortunately, Ms. Fey's response is as accurate as it is funny. According to a recent Commonwealth Fund analysis of the presidential candidates' health care proposals, Senator McCain's proposal ignores some of the biggest health care problems of the day. The McCain proposal does not address the growing number of uninsured, the amount that people with and without insurance must pay for their health care, and concerns about the quality of care that we receive.

Along with the other bad economic news this week we learned that everyone - regardless of age and employer - is paying more for their health insurance.

The Kaiser Family Foundation reported on September 24 that, since 1999, premiums for health insurance have more than doubled, while wages increased only 34 percent and general inflation rose 29 percent. Deductibles and other cost-sharing have increased and are likely to increase as well.
http://www.kff.org/newsroom/ehbs092408.cfm.

Today, the Washington Post reports that premiums for federal employees will jump almost 8 percent, on average, in 2009, more than twice the increase for 2008 and almost four times the increase in 2007. Plus, people in the most popular federal plan, the Blue Cross/Blue Shield plan, will see an almost 13% increase.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/25/AR200809...

Elizabeth Edwards got it right yesterday in her testimony about health care reform before the Health Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Mrs. Edwards pointed out the fallacy of relying on individual private plans under the free market theory espoused by Senator McCain and other Republicans. She spoke from personal experience when she testified, "....the reality is that deciding between the costs and benefits of various cancer treatments like chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery will simply never be the same as choosing between purchasing a Dodge, Pontiac, and Lincoln."

How many women in Pennsylvania and across the US have had to make that choice? And how many have had no choice to make because they don't have health insurance to cover any of those treatments? Senator Obama's health plan works to ensure that all of those women have the insurance they need and have the information they need to make informed decisions about quality affordable health care.

Just as Americans are getting bad news about their savings and retirement income from Wall Street, a report issued today in Health Affairs gives us bad news about what will happen to our health insurance if John McCain is elected president.

Thomas Buchmueller, a professor at the Ross School of Business at Michigan, and several colleagues, all professors at prestigious institutions, analyzed McCain’s proposal. While McCain’s idea to replace the tax benefits to employers who offer health insurance with a refundable tax credit for people who buy their own insurance may sound good on paper, the practical effect would make us worse off than we are now.