McCain’s Health Plan: Higher Costs, Fewer Benefits

by   |  October 06, 2008

The latest issue of Newsweek features an analysis of John McCain’s health care plan by Jane Bryant Quinn, an expert on personal finance. McCain’s plan would tax employer-provided insurance as income, and encourage workers to purchase individual coverage by issuing tax credits of up to $5000 – payable directly to the insurance companies. Her take?

“Friends, there's zero evidence that that works. In the long run, tax credits will raise your costs without changing the game. And we still won't have helped most of the uninsured.”

McCain’s vision for health care would give the private insurance companies even more control over who gets health care, how much they pay and what is and isn’t covered. It relies on what Bryant Quinn calls the “magic of the marketplace” to improve offerings and keep costs low – but the events of the last few weeks on Wall Street have shown us what happens when corporate profits are the driving force behind our government’s policies. Working Americans can’t afford more of that kind of “magic,” and we can’t afford to elect John McCain.

Paid for by American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees PEOPLE (1625 L St, NW, Washington, DC 20036) and not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.