October 20, 2008 09:57 PM UTC

Health care still a top concern

• 0 Comments
• by: LindaB

Even though the economy — meaning mortgage foreclosures, tight credit, bailouts — is still THE top concern of voters, health care comes in a close second.  The reason is that health care and the economy are tied together.  When you lose a job, and thus your employer-sponsored health insurance, you are faced with high COBRA payments or trying to get health insurance on your own.  It’s tough now to get an individual health insurance plan, but under McCain’s plan it would be nearly impossible.

John McCain’s health care plan would deregulate health care, much like what happened with the banking industry. That message is finally seeping into the political debate. People are starting to ask McCain at his town halls, “Why do you want to cut Medicare? Why do you want to tax my health benefits?”  And his answers are not too reassuring.  He has said he would have to cut Medicare to pay for his tax credits, but he has not said what he would cut.  Most likely it would start with reducing the payments to doctors, forcing even more of them to stop taking Medicare. That’s a message all seniors should hear, but I imagine they don’t know that.

As for taxing your health benefits, he tries to explain that his tax credit would cover that extra taxation, but he doesn’t explain how you could get a decent health insurance plan on your own with what’s left over from the tax credit.  And most people don’t know that the tax credit would not come to you directly. It would go to the health insurance company.  It’s a complicated system that even his own advisers have called “radical.”

It’s no wonder that now that people are paying attention to health care, they don’t like what they hear from McCain’s plan.  And it’s also no wonder that all McCain has to offer is to call Obama’s plan “socialist.”  (It’s hilarious to hear Republicans calling someone else Socialist when they just nationalized our banking industry!)

Obama has a modest health proposal.  So modest that some on the left are mad that it is not single payer.  Despite the problems in the economy, Obama has stayed steadfast that he will keep health care reform at the top of his agenda, because making health care affordable is linked closely to improvements in the economy.

Health care is no longer a side issue. It’s right up there with all the issues on the economy in general.  If you want to learn more about both Obama and McCain’s health plans, check out this Christian Science Monitor article at

http://features.csmonitor.com/…

 Loading ...