Would Cindy like McCain's new health plan?

August 29, 9:23 PMHealth Care ExaminerDoctor Lissa

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   Cindy McCain

I felt really badly for Cindy McCain recently.  She was at a public event, if you recall, and sprained her hand after a zealous fan shook hands with her too enthusiastically.  Still, she kept campaining with her husband, as if she loved it. 

That got me thinking.  What would Cindy think of John's plan?  Surely she must know that health care needs fundamental change.  80% of the American public thinks that, so it can't come as a surprise.  And she has needed a lot of medical care in her relatively short life.  So she knows the value of good insurance, good physicians, good nursing care and well equiped hospitals.  Would she want insurance with this plan?

Of the two candidates, guess which one represents the most change?  I know Obama has the "Change" concept locked down, but actually according to experts, McCain is the one whose plan would change the health system the most.

That seems weird, I know, but consider this.  If John McCain is elected President and his health plan is adopted he would do the following:

• Employer provided insurance would be taxable (it isn't now) but you'd get a $5,000 refundable tax credit for a family and $2500 for an individual to offset the taxes you would pay.  That's real change.  Right now if you get insurance from your employer, you don't pay taxes on that benefit.
• Move the consumer away from employer sponsored health care and have the individual pick up the responsibility.  Right now  fewer Americans pay for their own insurance and get clobbered if they try.  This would obviously have to change.  Right now the average family without employer sponsored health insurance pays around $13,000 a year for coverage.  Even with a $5,000 credit, the family would be short around $8,000.  Well, that's a change.
• Leave it to the states to determine the rules.  Most states do not have favorable laws for the consumer now.  The deck is stacked and not in the consumer's favor.  Not a real change, but wait!  Right now insurance companies cannot sell across state lines.  McCain would change that.  That means they will go to the state with the least regulations to sell to anyone, anywhere.  Quite a change and definitely not a good one for the consumer.
• Focus on health promotion behaviors instead of focusing so much on catastropic or chronic illness.  Cheaper to do and a welcome change.

If you're thinking, "Wow, look at all the change!", consider this:  In 1992, the Republican solution to health reform was to give tax credits to buy private health insurance.  Oh.

McCain says all of this is to provide the American family with the choices, but does the public really want to move away from a system in which employers provide most people's health insurance and not pay taxes on the benefit?  And what if you have a preexisting condition, like cancer?  We're not sure what will happen exactly.  Maybe we'll hear at the GOP convention next week.  I hope they'll be covered no matter.  That would be a good change.  Both Cindy and John McCain would benefit from that! Oh, well,yes, if they weren't covered by Medicare and insurance they receive as a result of his being a U.S. Senator.