Advocacy

Sen. John McCain (Rep-Arizona)

• For a healthcare insurance system in which competition between insurance companies holds down cost to the consumer.
• There will be no expansion of the current government-run healthcare insurance programs, such as Medicare.
• In addition, there is no requirement that individuals have health insurance.
• He plans to keep healthcare costs from increasing by lowering payments to doctors and hospitals, as well as medical liability³ reform.
• Plans will be transferable from job to job.
• McCain’s plan will lower taxes by $2,500 for individuals ($5,000 for families) for the purchase of healthcare insurance.
• Employers would no longer be allowed to deduct healthcare costs from their taxes.

Ralph Nader (Independent)

• Nader proposes universal healthcare by means of a 3.5% federal tax to be taken out of employee’s paychecks, as well as a tax on the selling of stock. He projects that these changes would generate $120 billion a year, sufficient to pay for universal healthcare⁶.
• He is the only candidate for a single payer healthcare system . He favors replacing the current system with a single-payer healthcare plan⁷ in which the government finances healthcare, but allows patients the free choice of doctors and hospitals.
• Nader proposes that elderly people with low incomes would get all the prescription drugs they need at no cost to them.
• He believes that price restraints should be placed on all drugs; especially those drugs developed using taxpayer money.

Sen. Barack Obama (Dem-Illinois)

• All children are required to have health insurance.
• Employers are required to offer employees health insurance or to contribute to its cost. The smallest businesses are not required to provide health insurance to their employees.
• Obama will institute a new public insurance plan, called the "National Health Insurance Exchange ," which creates a pool of competing private plans and one public plan, similar to Medicare¹. While adults are not required to have health insurance, this plan would be made available to all Americans.
• He would also expand Medicaid and SCHIP². He would pay for this plan by removing recent tax cuts for households earning over $250,000. Within this plan, no American will be turned away from any insurance plan because of illness or pre-existing conditions. The insurance coverage options will be similar to that offered to federal employees.
• Individuals and families who do not qualify for Medicaid⁹ or SCHIP² but still need financial assistance will receive federal assistance to buy into the new public plan or purchase a private health care plan.
• Plans are transferable from job to job.

Sources:

1. 2008 Election Guide. New Physician. January-February 2008. Volume 57, Number 1. Pages 13-16.
2. NYTimes Election Guide 2008.   
3. Health08.org
4. Pew Research Center
5. PSR: Physicians for Social Responsibility (PDF)
6. On the Issues
7. dennis4president.com - Issues Library
8. US Office of Personnel Management Insurance Programs
9. BarackObama.com