adn.com | Health4all : Presidential Candidates' Health Reform Proposals: Key Differences

Health4all

Every year more Alaskan families lose health insurance and can't afford health care. Every year more families with health insurance cannot afford to use it because of expensive out-of-pocket charges. Every year more Alaskan elders with Medicare are refused treatment by local physicians. And every year health care in Alaska continues to cost 30 percent more than down south. These problems are a reflection of the crisis across the nation. Not surprisingly, the United States ranks last in preventable deaths compared to 14 Western European nations. We have a lot to talk about.

Lawrence D. Weiss retired from UAA in 2004 as a research professor in public health. He designed and built the Master of Public Health program at UAA, and has published three books and numerous articles on public health and health policy issues. He completed a post-doctoral degree at Harvard School of Public Health in 1982, and has been in Alaska ever since. His favorite expression is "facts matter." Occasionally he can be found in a local pub drinking beer and eating pizza while engaged in passionate conversation with friends.

Presidential Candidates' Health Reform Proposals: Key Differences

Posted by health4all

Posted: October 13, 2008 - 4:41 pm

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This report describes the 2008 presidential candidates' proposals, examines key differences in their vision of a future health insurance system, and evaluates the proposals against principles outlined by the Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System. Senators John McCain and Barack Obama would place the nation's health system on very different paths, with profound implications for the American people.

Obama's proposal for mixed private–public group insurance with a shared responsibility for financing has greater potential to move the health care system toward high performance than does McCain's proposal to encourage individual market coverage through the use of tax incentives and deregulation. According to an estimate discussed in the report, in 10 years McCain's proposal would reduce the number of people who are uninsured by 2 million out of a projected 67 million, while Obama's plan would reduce the number of uninsured people by 34 million.

[source: Excerpted from The 2008 Presidential Candidates' Health Reform Proposals: Choices For America]

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