The problem

• • • Health insurance costs have increased far faster than inflation, doubling since 2000. The U.S. spends 40% more per person on health care than countries such as Canada and Switzerland, but our care is no better.
    • In 2007 there were 8.9 million uninsured children and 36.1 million uninsured adults.

Summary of the candidates’ positions

Both Obama and McCain would allow imports of cheaper prescription drugs from other countries. Beyond that, they have little in common.

McCain wants to encourage Americans buy their own health-care plans rather than relying on employer-based plans. He says that if people pay for insurance directly, rather than being covered by their company, people will be more careful about how they spend the money.
Obama would guarantee that anybody who wants health insurance gets it. He would offer a plan similar to one available to U.S. government workers. He would require large companies to offer health plans help small businesses pay for insurance for employees.

Obama would require that parents obtain insurance for their children. McCain would not require anyone to get insurance.

Both plans would be expensive: Over 10 years, McCain’s plan would cost $1.3 trillion while Obama’s would cost $1.6 trillion, according to the Tax Policy Institute.

Independent studies have noted that both candidates’ plans are not specific on important details that could impact their cost and effectiveness. They also have criticized both plans for exaggerating the likely cost savings from reforms such as increasing spending on preventive care and the adoption of electronic medical records. Both campaigns also have made factually inaccurate claims about their opponent’s plan.

But independent analysts generally agree that Obama’s plan would cover more of the uninsured than McCain’s would. We have not found any independent analysis that suggests McCain’s plan would reduce the uninsured more than Obama’s.

Conservatives, however, say Obama’s plan, with its heavy reliance on government, will lead to limited patient choices and rationed care. “McCain’s proposal is much more consumer-centered and taps into the best aspects of the free market,” says Michael Tanner, director of health and welfare studies at the conservative Cato Institute.

Sources:
FactCheck.org
Wall Street Journal
CNBC
Washington Post
Los Angeles Times
Tax Policy Center
Cato Institute
Obama Campaign
McCain Campaign

John McCain:

To cut costs, McCain would make it harder for people to sue their doctors.

To encourage Americans to buy their own health-care plans McCain would provide a $2,500 tax credit ($5,000 for families) toward the cost of health insurance while requiring individuals with health plans from their employers to pay taxes on those benefits.

The Obama campaign has called the McCain plan “the largest middle-class tax increase in history,” a claim FactCheck.org calls “simply not true.”

What is true is that because the tax credit would be indexed to inflation it will fall behind rising health costs over time. In addition, it won’t be enough to cover the health care taxes for high-income workers. By 2018, the top 40 percent of income earners would see their taxes increase on average, according to the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan group headed by the former head of tax policy in the Clinton administration

An analysis by the Health Policy Center also concluded that the credit is not enough to make health insurance affordable for many. The analysis also concluded the McCain plan would make insurance less affordable and available for those with existing health problems as insurance companies shun them to insure younger, healthier individuals. It also would reduce the number of people covered by employers, leaving about the same number of people insured.

Barack Obama:

To cut costs, Obama would limit drug company profits. Obama would prevent insurance companies from refusing to sell insurance to people who are sick (known as a “pre-existing condition”).

Obama’s plan would reduce the number of uninsured by 18 million by 2009 and 34 million by 2018, covering nearly all children, according to the Tax Policy Institute. The Health Policy Center agrees it would “greatly increase health insurance coverage” but would still leave about 6 percent of the non-elderly uninsured, compared with 17 percent now.

The McCain-Palin campaign and the Republican National Committee have run ads saying Obama’s plan would “rob 50 million employees of their health care,” another false claim. FactCheck.org says the 50 million figure is a “complete misrepresentation” of a study of a health care plan proposed by the Economic Policy Institute.