Presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee Obama criticizes health care proposal of opponent McCain

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) on Thursday during a rally at a Bristol, Va., high school said that the health care proposal of presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) would not expand health insurance to all U.S. residents, the Washington Times reports.

Obama said that the proposal, which would replace a 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, only "takes care of the healthy and the wealthy" (Bellantoni/Lambro, Washington Times, 6/6). Obama also called the proposal "Bush-lite" (Simon, Media General/Richmond Times-Dispatch, 6/6). According to Obama, although health insurance premiums have increased at a higher rate than wages and millions of residents have lost coverage since President Bush took office in 2001, "McCain actually wants to double down on the failed policies that have done so little to help ordinary Americans" (Rucker, AP/Minneapolis Star Tribune, 6/5).

Obama said that he would finance his health care proposal -- which would use the federal government to establish a marketplace in which residents could purchase private or public health insurance, with subsidies for lower-income residents -- in part through disease prevention programs and a paperless health care information technology system.

McCain spokesperson Tucker Bounds said, "Barack Obama has no record of bipartisan success on this issue." Bounds added that Obama would "put the government between Americans and their health care," a proposal that "even his allies on Capitol Hill think is unrealistic" (Media General/Richmond Times-Dispatch, 6/6).

Comparison of Health Care Proposals

The Wall Street Journal on Friday compared the health care proposals of Obama and McCain.

According to the Journal, "Obama wants all Americans to have health insurance," and he would "increase regulations and spend tax dollars to do it." For example, his proposal would prohibit health insurers from rejecting applicants because of pre-existing medical conditions.

Meanwhile, "McCain wouldn't likely make a big dent in the number of uninsured, but would decrease regulations to give people more choices," the Journal reports. His proposal, for example, would allow residents to purchase health insurance across state lines (Wall Street Journal graphic, 6/6).

Daschle as HHS Secretary?

In other election news, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) in an interview with CongressDaily this week said that he "can be helpful ... in a prospective Obama administration on health care reform" and that he has interest in the position of HHS secretary. He added, "I've got some ideas that I think could be of help on this issue."

Daschle in February published the book "Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis," in which he proposed a Federal Health Board to "create a public framework for a largely private health care delivery system" (McPike, CongressDaily, 6/5).

"A Closer Look" interview with Daschle about his book is available on kaisernetwork.org.

Opinion Pieces

Summaries of two recent opinion pieces that address health care issues in the presidential election appear below.

• Thomas DiBacco, Orlando Sentinel: Some voters might "view Obama's smoking as irrelevant or his own business" or "conclude that smoking ... should be regarded as a difficult-to-tackle medical condition," but a "candidate for president ... is no ordinary smoker," DiBacco, a professor emeritus at American University, writes in a Sentinel opinion piece. In the event that Obama is "engages in risky activity, that puts effective decision-making at risk, with smokers illustrating more sick days than nonsmokers and more irritability in terms of quitting attempts, to say nothing of the risk of developing life-threatending diseases," he writes. DiBacco concludes, "Americans have every right to know more about Barack Obama's medical records, especially his use of a product that every citizen knows can cause lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema and a host of other serious conditions" (DiBacco, Orlando Sentinel, 6/5).
• Froma Harrop, Spokane Spokesman-Review: Obama "caresses the words 'universal coverage' almost hourly, but his proposal offers nothing of the kind," syndicated columnist Harrop writes in a Spokesman-Review opinion piece. According to Harrop, Obama has "show[n] ... timidity on health care," as his proposal would require health insurance only for children, but "ardent progressives" were "so forgiving ... of Mr. Big that they virtually abandoned what should have been the Democrats' most potent promise: medical coverage for all." She writes, "Make no mistake: A universal health care system is an economic as well as social imperative -- the idea that in a rich country, no one should go without medical care," adding, "The lack of one hurts Americans' ability to compete with foreigners whose governments have controlled national health care costs and achieved better average medical outcomes through their national systems of universal coverage." She concludes, "How curious that out of the smoke and drama of the Democratic race, there emerged a 'candidate of change' whose health care proposal is not universal, much less bold" (Harrop, Spokane Spokesman-Review, 6/5).