Senator McCain proposes giving each family $5,000 to buy their own health insurance

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Under McCain's heath care plan, individuals would be eligible for a $2,500 credit and families a $5,000 credit to help pay for health insurance if they do not subscribe to, or do not have access to, employer-provided health care coverage. The government would send the money directly to insurers.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/04/29/mccain.healthcare/

[Gaby&Talbert 1]

Obviously we need health care reform but why are these three the ones to decide what is best? Get a group of experts on how to build the best healthcare system in the world and then bring it to congress and the senate. We don't need a bandaid, we need the entire sytem rebuilt from scratch.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

It sounds fine and dandy, in theory - but insurance premiums for older people and people with chronic conditions could swallow up that money pretty quickly.

McC is making his campaign platform on this issue about lowering costs - but so far the proposals he's put forward don't really address why health insurance and healthcare cost so much.

As I say - one tooth filling incurred charges of $580, while an exploratory surgery cost well over $20,000. And this is saying nothing about the cost of prescription medication. How are any of these costs arrived at?

[rebeccajo 14]

$5K? For family coverage?

Well, that ought to cover a family of four for about what - 8 months?

[Fandango 1,439]

It sounds fine and dandy, in theory - but insurance premiums for older people and people with chronic conditions could swallow up that money pretty quickly.

McC is making his campaign platform on this issue about lowering costs - but so far the proposals he's put forward don't really address why health insurance and healthcare cost so much.

As I say - one tooth filling incurred charges of $580, while an exploratory surgery cost well over $20,000. And this is saying nothing about the cost of prescription medication. How are any of these costs arrived at?

I dunno, good question. I would say one answer is covering the costs for the uninsured.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Well he's not suggesting the government pay 100% of premiums. He's suggesting government pay the first 5k.

Asking people to pay a share of their own health care costs is not too much to ask. We can debate over how much, of course.

[Fandango 1,439]

Sucks that now I'm workinga second job that I love just for health ins and bennies. Had I not, I woulda been eligible for summat like this to pay my monthly premium for my pvt ins.

$2500 wouldnt have paid it all, mind you, but still it's better than nuttin!

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Well he's not suggesting the government pay 100% of premiums. He's suggesting government pay the first 5k.

Asking people to pay a share of their own health care costs is not too much to ask. We can debate over how much, of course.

Sure - there's nothing unfair about that - but the question is how much will be left to pay after the first $5K.

McC says he wants to cut costs - but I don't see how he is really doing that. He's into this complete free-market B/S whereby he won't even entertain the possibility that the industry is doing anything untoward to bring about those high prices.

The other thing I'm wondering about is that if he's opening up the healthcare market to essentially do away with employer sponsored insurance programmes, is that actually going to lower the cost for individual consumers? I'm not sure...

Edited April 29, 2008 by Number 6

[HAL 9000 96]

Who's gonna pay for these proposed credits in the long run?

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Who's gonna pay for these proposed credits in the long run?

Well there you go...

[Gaby&Talbert 1]

I think the one area in the US that free enterprise isn't working so well is the medical field. Costs have gone through the roof with everything related to the medical field in the US because they can. We are too far gone at this point to be able to correct the problems by giving insurance to people that don't have it now. Insurance isn't even the problem, the problem is the costs. For what most Americans with insurance pay after their copay and deductable you can get for the same cost without insurance in other countries like Mexico. This also applies to prescription drugs. The whole system is broken and needs to be rebuilt from scratch.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

McCain has said he'd be cool with importing drugs from Canada. Of course, if that happened, the Canadians (if they're smart - and they are) would jack up prices for drugs sold to Americans.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

$5K? For family coverage?

Well, that ought to cover a family of four for about what - 8 months?

5K would cover this family of three for less than 5 months seeing that my employer and I currently pay more than 12K a year in health insurance premiums - 4K of which comes out of my check and 8K of which my employer pays to the insurance company.

All I could see this plan accomplish is encourage employers to drop health insurance benefits so people would get that money from Uncle Sam instead - whether it actually covers the cost the employer thus far paid or not. In the end, people would have less money in their pockets and more people would end up uninsured.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

deleted..... the edit is fukcing up the formatting.

Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York: “Health care I feel strongly about, but I am not sure that we’re ready for a major national health care plan.” Schumer said he’d focus “on prevention above all and cost cutting until we can get a national health care plan.”

Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia: “We all know there is not enough money to do all this stuff,” he said. “What they are doing is … laying out their ambitions.”

Rep. Kendrick Meek of Florida: “I hear on the campaign trail, ‘This is what I’m going to do,’ as if there is not a Congress here with feelings and experience on this issue,” Meek said. “I think it’s important that everyone takes that into consideration and that this is not a kingdom, this is a democracy.” Meek added that “the money is not necessarily there right now” and said calls to end the Iraq war would likely take up a lot of Washington’s bandwidth. He called the health proposals “a really good start.”

http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/04/24/dem...ersal-coverage/

Edited April 29, 2008 by VJ Troll

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

The profiteers of the status quo fund their lobbying efforts very well.