Obama, McCain discuss health care proposals

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) on Tuesday discussed their "sharply different approaches" to health care, the economy and other issues, the Washington Post reports (Bacon, Washington Post, 6/11). Obama promoted his health care proposal on Tuesday during a visit to St. Louis Children's Hospital (Jackson, USA Today, 6/11).

The proposal would mandate health insurance for children and require employers to offer health insurance or pay a percentage of their payrolls into a federal fund to provide coverage. In addition, the proposal would provide subsidies to individuals who cannot afford to purchase health insurance (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 6/10).

Obama also criticized the McCain health care proposal (Apuzzo/Babington, AP/Houston Chronicle, 6/10). The proposal would replace an income tax break for employees who receive health insurance from employers with a refundable tax credit of as much as $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families for the purchase of private coverage (Washington Post, 6/11). Obama said that McCain is "offering a tax cut that won't ensure that health care is affordable for hardworking families who need help most," adding that "his plan could actually put your coverage at risk by undermining the employer-based system that most Americans depend on" (Curl, Washington Times, 6/11).

McCain Speech

McCain on Tuesday discussed his health care proposal during the 2008 National Small Business Summit, a meeting of the National Federation of Independent Business, in Washington, D.C., the Austin American-Statesman reports (Dart, Austin American-Statesman, 6/11). During his speech, McCain said, "I believe that the best way to help small businesses and employers afford health care is not to increase government control of health care but to bring the rising cost of care under control and give people the option of having personal, portable health insurance." He added that his proposal would allow individuals to retain their health insurance "even when they move or change jobs" (AP/Houston Chronicle, 6/10).

Health Care Proposal Comparisons

Two newspapers on Wednesday published articles that compared the health care proposals of Obama and McCain. Summaries appear below.

• Christian Science Monitor: "The economic downturn is speeding up the unraveling of America's health care system," and, although former Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) "made universal access to quality health insurance a cornerstone of her presidential campaign," Obama and McCain "propose less ambitious plans," the Monitor reports. According to the Monitor, both candidates "favor subsidies of a kind to help low-income Americans get access to health care, but otherwise their plans are ideological opposites." Obama supports "creating a national health plan similar to the one currently offered to members of Congress," and "McCain favors instituting a federal tax credit to encourage individuals to buy their own insurance," the Monitor reports (Marks, Christian Science Monitor, 6/11).
• McClatchy/Miami Herald: Most U.S. residents know "little of either candidate's disparate plans to overhaul the nation's dysfunctional health care system," but "that's likely to change in the coming months as the presidential race sharpens its focus on the policy differences that define and separate Obama and McCain," McClatchy/Herald reports. According to McClatchy/Herald, "Obama's proposed universal health care plan embodies the long-held Democratic Party goal of covering the 47 million" uninsured residents, and, under the plan, employers, health insurers, individuals and the government all would have "greater roles in assuring coverage through a number of proposals designed to close gaps in the system." In contrast, the McCain proposal "follows Republican orthodoxy of trying to make the private insurance marketplace more affordable and competitive by radically altering the tax treatment of health care benefits," McClatchy/Herald reports (Pugh, McClatchy/Miami Herald, 6/11).