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McCain Wants to Tax Our Health Care |
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With the election only 34 days away, working families are taking a close look at Sen. John McCain’s policies—including the new health care tax that could hurt the ability of millions of workers to access care.
Through a new mailer on health care, as well as phone banking and door-to-door walks, the AFL-CIO is reaching out to more than 1 million union members to educate them about what McCain’s health care tax means for them.
Workers and their families in Colorado, Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin will receive the mailer, which features Ohio union member Dave Fecke talking about how McCain’s wrong-headed health care plan shows just how out of touch he is.
The difference between me and McCain? McCain’s rich. He’s never had to sit at a bargaining table and choose between a 50 cent-an-hour raise and decent health care benefits. He doesn’t get it.
McCain’s health care plan would impose a new tax on workers’ employer-based health care benefits. One of the impacts of this tax may be that 158 million could be at risk of losing their health benefits and be thrown on their own into a private insurance market that McCain thinks has too many regulations protecting consumers.
Under McCain’s plan, insurance companies would have even more leeway to deny coverage to those with pre-existing health conditions and to deny care to those who do have coverage. Because the U.S. insurance system is not subject to stringent oversight, families could have a harder time getting necessary, cost-effective preventative care, like cancer screenings.
McCain’s voting record on health care shows he doesn’t get it—he voted to cut billions of dollars from the Medicare budget, supported raising Medicare premiums and the eligibility age to receive Medicare and opposed expanding children’s health care.
And McCain’s plan doesn’t offer any answers to the problem of the 46 million without any insurance in this country. It’s as if the people who wrote the plan don’t think the uninsured exist. (Oh, wait.)
McCain says his plan would include a tax credit for purchasing health coverage from private insurers—but he doesn’t point out the credit isn’t sufficient to cover what the average health plan costs now, and it won’t keep up with rising costs.
Sen. Barack Obama, on the other hand, has proposed a plan that will allow families to keep the health care coverage they have now, but also gives us a wider array of options, including a public plan, so everyone can get affordable, high-quality health care. Obama’s voting record has shown he understands the need to strengthen Medicare, cut costs for families and protect consumers.
Fixing health care is crucial to making the economy work again because the failures of the health care system are a key cause underlying America’s economic crisis. Studies show that health care premiums and other costs are rising faster than paychecks, putting the squeeze on family budgets, and medical crises are a contributing factor in half of the foreclosures. As costs rise, families are cutting back on needed preventative care. The increasing cost of health care across the whole system hurts working families, the businesses that employ them and the federal budget.
We can’t afford not to address the health care crisis—but McCain’s plan would make our current system worse, removing consumer protections and exacerbating the flaws in the system that empower insurance companies at the expense of families.
On health care, the choice is clear. Obama will make much-needed changes that would ensure more working families can afford to get the care they need.
McCain’s radical health care plan would raise taxes and pull us sharply in the other direction—higher costs, less coverage and more power for big insurance companies.
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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.
7 Comments
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The MCAINE is INSANE!
With a National Health Care Plan like HR 676, no need for health care benefits to be brought up at the bargaining table, EVERYONE is covered.
Government run BUT medical care privately administered, you have the choice who will be your doctor, and which hospital you want treatment from. Best thing is we all quit giving our hard earned money to the insurance companies who put profit over patients!
HR 676 would cover every person in the U. S. for all necessary medical care including prescription drugs, hospital, surgical, outpatient services, primary and preventive care, emergency services, dental, mental health, home health, physical therapy, rehabilitation (including for substance abuse), vision care, chiropractic and long term care.
HR 676 ends deductibles and co-payments. HR 676 would save billions annually by eliminating the high overhead and profits of the private health insurance industry and HMOs.
HR 676 currently has 92 co-sponsors in addition to Conyers. Co-sponsors and bill text are here:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:h.r.00676:
HR 676 has been endorsed by 463 union organizations in 49 states including 116 Central Labor Councils and Area Labor Federations and 39 state AFL-CIO’s (KY, PA, CT, OH, DE, ND, WA, SC, WY, VT, FL, WI, WV, SD, NC, MO, MN, ME, AR, MD-DC, TX, IA, AZ, TN, OR, GA, OK, KS, CO, IN, AL, CA, AK, MI, MT, NE, NY, NV & MA).
With McCain and Palin as working people we will get MCPAIN!
16 years ago Bill Clinton ran his campaign on getting health care for America. His promises fizzled and sputtered and finally died. Eight years later Bush campaigned on Clinton’s failed health care. More fizzles and sputters and ashes.
Do you really think that either the Dems or Reps are going to do anything? It’s up to us to make sure that whoever ends up in the White House finally takes care of it…not just throwing more money at the problem, that doesn’t work for anyone except the insurance companies, the pharmaceutical companies and the malpractice lawyers. Remember the Boston Tea Party? How about a 2009 Washington 676 Party to force the issue?
You go Granny! I do remember the Boston Tea Party, that’s why I am a registered Libertarian. Everyone should reflect on the reasons for the Boston Tea Party and compare that to the mindset of today. Our government is the country of England.
Al Gore is talking about civil disobedience against coal fired power plants, that is silly. We need to take back the government!
My family came over on the Mayflower, started the Thanksgiving tradition and settled that part of the country so lets party.
New Hampshire says it best “Live Free or Die”
I work as a manager of an ER. The problem that I have with the government taking over anything to do with healthcare is that they have done such a fine job up until now! I am sick and tired of anyone (adult to teens) coming into the ER with every kind of complaint that is stupid. I had someone yesterday (15 years old with mom in tow) come in after an abortion and complain of vaginal bleed, DUH! She plopped down the government card to pay for it and then refused everything that the doctor wanted to do except to give her pain meds to go. She got her prescription signed out against medical advice. An hour later I received a call from the pharmacy that the girl was there with mom and 3 vicodin prescriptions she had gotten at 3 hospitals that day. Come on what are we teaching our kids. Another one was a 14 year old who called 911 for a headache, transported to us and then he got off the cot and said that the hospital was closer to his friends house. Mom was brought in 2 hours later wigged out on wet and not even knowing what was going on in her sons life. He then showed up to visit mom and wanted a ride home from 911 because mom couldnt drive him she was in the hospital. And he had the nerve to call them from the hospital for 911 to come and get him. These are not unusual circumstances this is just two stories in the last week. We have to do something about healthcare but lets start with not offering it to everyone who has too many children that they cannot pay for and continuing the cycle of abuse. If I cant afford healthcare I dont get it, but if I am a bum and dont work and lay around and do drugs I get whatever I want for every kind of make believe problem that I can come up with. Fix healthcare and make it available to everyone who “needs it” not “demands it”. Kick the others to the curb!
Many good points. You represent the other side of the picture and can see the abuse that occurs all to often. I have heard of similar things happening in my own home town. What needs to happen is not only to have a national health care system that takes care of everyone who is sick, but is also responsibly and efficiently regulated. I think this could happen. No one should be denied health care that needs it, but no one should be given the opportunity to exploit the system either.