McCain's Stinker of a Health Care "Plan"

Today as John McCain holds a "town hall" rally at the swank new Intercontinental Cleveland to promote his do-nothing approach to health care policy, members of the AFL/CIO will be outside holding giant Band-Aid signs and delivering thousands of band-aids signed by working people. They are demanding real health care reform. McCain is offering more giveaways to the insurance companies.

Yesterday ODP Chair Chris Redfern hosted a press conference call with Cuyahoga County Commissioner Tim Hagan and State Senator Sue Morano (D-Lorain), a practicing registered nurse, to set aside any illusions about McCain's poorly-conceived health care proposals. Although McCain has said that his plan "doesn't leave anyone behind," the fact is that it continues the disastrous Bush policy of ignoring the 47 million uninsured Americans.

Kevin Sack spelled it out in a comprehensive comparison of health care plans in the New York Times in March. Both Democratic candidates have plans that focus on universal coverage, although they differ slightly in their approach. McCain's plan is about using tax policy purportedly to promote competition in the health care marketplace. Assuring coverage for all simply isn't his priority. He doesn't even have an estimate of how many of America's uninsured would likely gain coverage under his plan.

As for what the McCain plan does include, it's all great news for corporations and bad news for ordinary people. First, he would eliminate the longstanding tax exemption on health benefits paid by employers. Without this incentive, the gradual trend of employers dropping health benefits will accelerate dramatically. As pointed out in the Wall Street Journal, "the result would likely be an erosion of employer-sponsored insurance and an increase in plans bought on the open market." McCain's alternative of providing tax credits to individuals for health costs is a classic Republican scheme that gives a big boon to the wealthy but does little good to struggling working families. Those who are poor or have high medical expenses simply can't afford the up-front costs. (In other words, it's a lot like the GOP-favored health care savings accounts, which a GAO report just out shows are increasingly popular as a tax shelter for the wealthy.)

Second, McCain would allow policies to be sold across state lines. Cross-border insurance sets up a classic race to the bottom. In other words, it allows "health-insurance companies to escape state regulations they don't like, such as rules allowing for appeals when companies deny coverage and rules requiring insurers to cover people with various conditions or to cover particular types of treatments. The companies would likely gravitate to the states with the regulations they most favored." State mandates that could be avoided include coverage for emergency room care (currently required in Ohio but not required in six other states), direct access to OB/GYN, coverage of colorectal cancer screening, and mental health parity. As Redfern said in the conference call, the McCain plan "lowers the bar for what qualifies as adequate health care."

As for people with pre-existing conditions, McCain has made vague noises about setting up a Medicaid trust fund to help them. That makes no sense, since Medicaid is a program for the poor and pre-existing conditions can make even middle-class or wealthy people uninsurable. This is particularly shocking since McCain himself is a cancer survivor, and cancer survivors are put directly at risk by the changes McCain wants to impose.

In the conference call, Commissioner Hagan pointed out that Cuyahoga County is ground zero for the health care crisis and the foreclosure crisis, another issue that McCain's proposals have failed to adequately address. He pointed out that health insurance costs paid by the county have risen from about $31 million in 2000 to over $67 million in 2007. Hagan said that he is "incredibly disappointed" by the McCain health care plan, the heart of which is an absence of concern for those with pre-existing conditions, showing that he has embraced the failed policies of the Bush administration. Hagan also connected McCain's heartless health care plan to his vote against expanding the SCHIP program to cover more children under Medicaid.

Senator Morano provided a personal perspective on the plight of the uninsured, based on her experiences as an intensive care nurse in Lorain for 26 years. One patient she talked about was a 57-year-old man who failed to get preventive care for his diabetes because he did not have health insurance and was embarrassed to be in that state after working hard all his life. When he finally came to the emergency room, complications from his diabetes caused the amputation of his foot, and ultimately led to his being placed on dialysis. If he had insurance coverage and received preventive care, those complications could have been prevented.

"The national health care policy is broken," Sen. Morano said. "McCain is merely repeating the failed mantras of the Bush administation. His plan will only result in longer lines at the ER and more unnecessary pain and suffering for Ohio patients."