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McCain’s Health Care Plan: Higher Taxes, Less Coverage |
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In a time of uncertainty and economic risk, people are more and more concerned about whether they’ll be covered in the event of a medical problem. As we’ve seen from the responses to the AFL-CIO’s 2008 Health Care for America Survey, those of you who have secure health care through your jobs know how lucky you are—and those whose employers have cut health care benefits are facing serious challenges.
Mary Anne, in Greenfield, Wis., has seen this dynamic firsthand:
As the Benefit Administrator in a midsized organization for many years, I have seen health insurance issues balloon into a truly ugly monster. Today, health insurance premiums are second only to wages in employer expenses. The premium costs to employers has skyrocketed, which in turn, has caused employers to pass on those huge increases to their employees by having the employee pay a percentage of the monthly cost. Not only have premiums increased dramatically, the benefits have decreased. Now employees must pay out-of-pocket expenses which can run into the thousands. These are the best-case scenarios. These are the lucky folks. I know many Americans who can afford little or no health insurance; they work; they have jobs, but are not covered by their employer. We need a change and soon.
(Click here to fill out the survey and tell your health care story. You can vote here on the stories you think make the most impact.)
Democratic Sens. Hillary Clinton (N.Y.) and Barack Obama (Ill.) have proposed solutions to the nation’s health care crisis that would go a long way toward addressing the needs of working families. (You can download a side-by-side comparison of the presidential candidates’ health care plans here.) Yet, the Republican presidential frontrunner, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), is backing a plan that would make health care even more out of reach for most of us.
McCain is pledging “no new taxes,” but his own health care plan might represent a massive tax increase for working families, according to the Tax Policy Center and the Kaiser Family Foundation.
[C]onsider McCain’s health care proposal. He says he would treat employer-sponsored health benefits as taxable income, while giving individuals a tax credit for the insurance they buy. On its own, taxing employer insurance just like wages would be a huge tax increase—OMB estimates in the neighborhood of $1 trillion from 2009–2013.
For union members with good health care plans, the tax increase would be even bigger. An employee whose health benefits are worth $15,000 would have to pay taxes on an extra $15,000 in income.
McCain’s plan theoretically compensates for this tax hike by offering tax credits for workers to pay for their health care. Unfortunately, according to studies by the Kaiser Family Foundation, these tax credits would cover less than half of the average cost of a health insurance premium—meaning employers would have less incentive to cover their employees, pushing workers out of employer-based systems and into the private insurance market.
All of this comes in the face of evidence that employees need good benefit plans, or they’ll wind up uninsured. A study by the Urban Institute shows that as employers stop providing coverage, employees can’t keep up with the costs of health care on their own. Deteriorating coverage, the study shows, means more people are left without coverage altogether.
Leaving working families on their own, at the mercy of private companies, won’t cut costs and won’t increase coverage. Instead, it exposes people to more risks.
That’s no way to solve our health care crisis. When it comes to the economic issues facing working families, McCain just doesn’t get it.
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Paid for by the AFL-CIO Committee on Political Education Political Contributions Committee, www.aflcio.org, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.
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This is an interesting blog….
Made me think of this discussion, “Who is the most ‘people-positive’ candidate?” on the new WorldofGood.com Community:
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Voice your opinion, and read others’ opinions! WorldofGood.com is a new people-positive community focused on socially-responsible commerce as a force for poverty alleviation.
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The Best Candidate for health care is Hillary Clinton, Obama needs to re-evaluate his plan so that all Americans participate, thus spreading burden so that the health care costs are lower and the quality of care is higher for All Americans.
The best plan offered was that of former candidate Dennis Kucinich,Medicare for all a Single Payer Government plan paid for by our Taxes which provides all necessary health care free of charge to all Americans rich or poor.
Labor should support both Hillary and Obama
Clinton, Obama, and the AFL-CIO don’t get it either.
Mandates won’t help if the individual can’t afford the insurance. Obama did get it right by saying it’s not that they don’t want insurance, they can’t afford it. Worse off is if a person or family is homeless.
Single payer health care expands Medicare for ALL. Look at the economic impact for companies as they will save millions on health care for their employees as WE ALL will be covered by the single payer plan. Unions won’t have health care to negotiate during contract talks because they will be covered.
Maybe, just maybe, companies will stay in the US because of the savings.
Under the National Health Care Act, HR 676:
Families Pay Less
A study by nationally recognized economist, Dean Baker, of the Center for Economic Research and Policy concluded that under H.R. 676, a family of three making $40,000 per year would spend approximately $1900 per year for healthcare coverage. Currently, (in 2007) the average annual premium for families covered under an employee health plan is $11,000. (National Coalition on Health Care.)
Business Pays Less
In 2005, without reform, the average employer that offers coverage will contribute $2,600 to health care per employee (for much skimpier benefits), or 217.00 per month. Under HR 676, the average costs to employers for an employee making $30,000 per year will be reduced to $1,425 per year; or about $119.00 per month.
Baker’s study reported that HR 676 would reduce health spending in 2005 from $1 trillion, 918 billion dollars to 1 trillion, 861.3 billion dollars, which translates into a saving of $56 billion in overall health care spending while covering all of the uninsured. This is a 3% reduction in over-all health care spending.
Years ago, someone told me that a truly smart man or woman would admit that they did not know everything about everything and then look for a smart person who did know what they needed to know and listen to that person. (Would Einstein have removed his own appendix or rewired his house? He knew where his intelligence was and admitted it.)
John McCain did the first part: he admitted that he knew very little about economics. If he found people with the economics knowledge he needed and listened to them, he could really acccomplish a lot. The same with health insurance, there are thousands of knowledgeable people who could help him work out a better program. John McCain has skills in leadership and could be the leader we need to bring this country back together. He just isn’t smart about health insurance and economics but he seems willing to listen to people who could fill in those gaps. (unlike George Bush whom I suspect listened only to the voices in his head and his “friends” who knew as little as he did.)
I think John McCain listens to the same voices that George Bush listens to. He will do the bidding of the big insurance companies and big pharmaceutical companies. Whenever you hear them say that the private sector can fix problems Look Out;. If the private sector was so good at solving these problems, we wouldn’t have these problems. They have been in charge for a long time, and look where it has gotten us. These big insurance companies are not concerned with affordable healthcare for Americans. They are concerned with big profits and salaries, and bonuses for their directors and CEO’s., and that is who John McCain is going to take care of
McCain’s leadership? This man has consistently voted against working families, and has supported most all of the current administration’s anti-worker policies. This is a guy who wanted to cut off your ability to earn overtime! This is a guy who doesn’t care if your child sees a doctor in a timely, affordable manner! The record is there. He is willing to overlook human rights abuses and labor protections in order to expand trade with China and Singapore—why would he pledge to protect American workers?
I don’t know about anyone else, but I can’t afford another four years of take-aways and stagflation. Those of us who work hard everyday for a living need to be able to at least keep a roof over our heads and food on the table; add health care to the mix and we may have to give up a meal or two to afford it before long. Over the last eight years, our pensions have been under fire, our benefits have dwindled, and our jobs have gone south of the border and elsewhere—why would you follow a leader who would lead you to ruin?
To believe that John McCain would “work out a better program” for health care if he listens to “knowledgeable” people is to assume that he cares about working Americans at all. His voting record shows that he does not.
One need only look at the Bankruptcy Reform Law, where McCain, with his “yes” vote, sided with the high-profit credit industry. That bill, which made it harder for people to declare bankruptcy when their debts overwhelmed them, made it harder for people to keep their most basic assets, including the roof over their heads.
In a series of amendments on S.256, McCain voted “no” on Amendment 15 which would have required credit card companies to disclose that their setting of low minimum payments actually increases the amount of debt people hold month by month. McCain voted “no” on Amendment 17 which would have let the elderly keep their homes when filing bankruptcy. McCain voted “no” on Amendment 37 which would have protected victims of identity theft. Perhaps McCain’s cruelest, and most hypocritical “no” came on Amendment 16, which would have kept credit card companies from charging ridiculously high rates to members of our Armed Forces, and would have prevented said soldiers from losing their homes if forced into bankruptcy.
I don’t for a moment buy McCain’s seemingly humble admission that he doesn’t understand economics. He understands the economics of casting votes which increase the already bloated profits of big business. He understands the economic impact that the donations of those corporations can have on his campaign. And, I have no doubt that his “plan” for health care coverage is exactly what he means it to be: A boon for corporations, and an increased financial burden for America’s working men and women.
Most of you have John McCain peg correctly,this guy is no leader and he certainly is no hero.I’m sorry that he was a POW but that in and of itself does not a hero make.It makes you a survivor that’s all.His record in Congress speaks for it’s self,I could not vote for him,but on the other hand I’m not to thrilled with the Democrats either.All of these people Democrat and Republican alike have helped to put this country where it is today and they are not about to bite the hand that sends the most money.I’m sorry folks but thats not working people,and we don’t have any to spare.