McCain's New Health Care Plan: Derivative, Stale, Incomplete and Parsimonious

Senator John Sidney McCain III (R-AZ) rolled out a health care plan today that he assures us all will be “by choice and competition” both “affordable” and “available.” [WaPo] There isn’t much choice, there’s not much competition; and, it’s neither affordable nor available. It is, however, just the sort of tax-credit proposal that Senator John Ensign (R-NV) tried to foist off on Americans. [DB]

The key piece is McCain’s proposal that every family get a $5000 per year tax credit toward the purchase of family health insurance. This assumes a couple of points; first that the family can afford to buy any health insurance in the first place; and, secondly that the $5000 will cover the costs. Also noticeably missing from this “free market” panacea is the fact that some Americans with “pre-existing conditions” can’t purchase health insurance at all. [DB] McCain’s position assumes, as Elizabeth Edwards points out, that individual Americans have the bargaining clout necessary to “get good prices” when neither large employer based plans have been unable to do so.

The remainder of McCain’s Great New Plan is comprised of nothing more than promises at this point – and, rather empty ones to boot.

A partial answer to the charge that the ‘uninsurable’ still may not be insured might be McCain’s assertion that he will set up a Guaranteed Access Plan to provide “coverage of last resort,” but he offered no details about how such a plan would work, who would administer it, or – indeed – how it might be funded. He might ask the already revenue strapped States to contribute to a non-profit fund partially financed by federal appropriations. McCain offered to solicit ideas from Governors about their state run programs.

The begging game: “McCain promised to lobby insurance companies for better coverage for preventative care, and to provide incentives for doctors and hospitals to use cutting edge technology to reduce medical costs.” [WaPo] Somehow, this sounds reminiscent of President Bush’s promise to treat with the oil producing nations to obtain more oil production, and, frankly, just about as likely.

Worse than Bush: And, that was it – that’s the entirety of McCain’s health insurance proposal. If it sounds derivative, stale, and incomplete, that’s likely because it is derivative, stale, and incomplete. In fact, it’s not even as generous as the Bush proposal in the 2007 State of the Union Message when the President offered a federal tax deduction of $7,500 per individual and $15,000 for families who get their health insurance individually or from an employer. [Kaiser]

Elizabeth Edwards commented on McCain’s proposal – “it shows that he is completely out of touch with what is happening in the health care system in America today.” She’s right. [Think Progress]