Tuesday September 16, 2008, 8:57 pm
HEALTHCARE TAKES CENTER STAGE (OR AT LEAST TRIES TO).... Once in a while, it's probably worth taking a moment to realize that if healthcare policy drove the presidential election, Barack Obama would win the electoral college, 538 to 0.

I mention this because there are some rather devastating items in the news today on the differences between the Obama and McCain healthcare plans, and what the competing approaches would mean to American workers and families.

* David Cutler, J. Bradford DeLong, and Ann Marie Marciarille have a tremendous item in the Wall Street Journal
today, explaining the enormous impact healthcare has on the economy,
including a direct effect on employment and wages. In some detail, the
scholars explain, "Sen. Obama's proposal will modernize our current
system of employer- and government-provided health care, keeping what
works well, and making the investments now that will lead to a more
efficient medical system." McCain's proposal, they go on to explain,
raises taxes on workers who receive health benefits, leads to more
people without insurance, leaves people with pre-existing conditions
behind, and does nothing to address rising healthcare costs.

* The New York Times' Bob Herbert tackles
a new study from scholars at Columbia, Harvard, Purdue, and Michigan,
and explains that 20 million Americans who have employment-based health
insurance would lose it under the McCain plan. The idea is to force
people out of an employer-based system, leaving Americans to take
meager tax credits out into the treacherous health insurance
marketplace.

* TNR's Jonathan Cohn
takes a closer look at a recent report from the Commonwealth Fund, and
explains that the McCain plan would also screw over an additional 25
million "underinsured" Americans.

* And Herbert notes
that McCain's radical approach, whether you like it or not, is "a
monumental change in the way health coverage would be provided to
scores of millions of Americans. Why not more attention?"

Because McCain and his cohorts have spent months trying to convince people that what really matters is lipstick, arugula, tire gauges, celebrities, and sex-ed for kindergarteners. If the campaign shifts to substance, he loses.

That, and healthcare policy is complicated. And news outlets hate complicated.



Permalink

Wednesday September 17, 2008, 8:03 pm
Jim Macdonald explains McCain's healthcare plan: "Make it more expensive, make it riskier, and for some people, make it nonexistent." And Teresa and friends ruminate on how we got here.

Thursday September 18, 2008, 2:44 pm
Visit http://www.sssoa.com/healthy-living/index.php and the follow the links to contact your congressional representive and urge them to vote for HR 676 which provides for a single provider health care system that all Amewricans can afford.

Cut McCain and the GOP off at he knees before the 2008 general election. Read the blog post "A Common Sense National Healthcare System" HR 676 provides for single-payer health insurance for all Americans If you do not act you will be sorry. McCain and the GOP want to tax the portion of your health insurance premium paid by your employer as income to you.