The definition of "affordable"

September 1, 4:23 PMProgressive Politics ExaminerJay McDonough

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One of the many clear distinctions in this upcoming presidential election is the two candidate's health care proposals.  Both the Republican and Democratic candidate agree spiraling costs have imposed big burdens on American families and addressing the issue is an important goal. 

Some statisitics:

-  The latest census figures indicate 47 million Americans are without any health care coverage.

-  In 2003, nearly 45M American families were spending more than 10% of their disposable income on health insurance.

-  The cumulative cost of premiums increased 91 percent from 2000 to 2007.

-  More than 25% of adults reported not obtaining treatment or prescription drugs because of cost.

-  The average family premium is $12,000.

-  Uninsured and underinsured Americans total 42% of the population.

-  Two million Americans face medical bankruptcy every year, even though 75% of these individuals had health insurance.

In other words, the system is way broke.

American Progress has a good article suggesting defining what's affordable may be a good place to start in mending the system.  The industry uses two approaches:

The first approach considers household budgets, measuring the dollar amount each household spends on necessities and then treating health care expenditures as an extra expense. This approach considers any remaining money after the purchase of necessities in the household budget to be available for the purchase of health care. This approach does not treat health care as an essential good, but rather as a luxury item.

The second common approach considers the share of income Americans can actually spend on health care. The costs of premiums and out-of-pocket expenses are measured as a share of income, and analysts use a sliding scale to compare this amount to a family's or individual's expected contribution for health care.

These different ways of understanding affordability have important implications for health reforms that seek to ensure access to affordable health coverageófor example, how affordability is defined will determine who receives help with health care costs, and how much help they may receive.

The Health Care Examiner (Doctor Lissa) has written two terrific posts on Barack Obama and John McCain's health care plans.  While Doctor Lissa has criticisms of each, she concludes the McCain plan won't even come close to addressing the problem and the Obama plan falls short by lacking a mandatory requirement for all to have health insurance. 

I'm surprised this isn't a bigger issue in the election.  I guess we're all too busy talking about Greek columns and vice presidential pregnancies.