Health

Candidates Have Widely Different Health Care Plans

WASHINGTON, D.C. (CBS4) ― When it comes to health care coverage, more than 40 million Americans don't have it and millions more worry about losing the coverage they currently have.

Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain each have a plan they feel would give more Americans access to health care, but the plans vary greatly.

The core of the Republican presidential candidate's plan is to put more health care choices in your hands. The plan would give each person a $2,500 tax credit, or a $5,000 tax credit for families.

"It basically focuses on the privatization of the health care system," said Dr. Steven Ullmann, a Health Care Management Expert at the University of Miami, "and much more of a role for the consumer as to deciding what kind of health care plan he or she would take on."

The thought is the more options could encourage competition and drive down costs. The downside of the McCain plan, though, is that employer-based health care benefits would be taxed. Many employers might find little to no incentive to offer coverage, especially in such tough economic times. In those same times, employees may use their tax credits to pay the mortgage or put food on the table rather than pay for health care.

"People who would ordinarily have insurance through their employers and now given an incentive to buy it on their own will not buy it on their own," said Dr. Ullmann.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama wants a bigger government role. His plan stops short of full government-sponsored Universal Health Care for everyone, but would greatly expand the government's reach.

"He would like to, and his party wants to, provide universal health care coverage for children," Dr. Ullmann described.

Obama would also require employers to provide health care coverage to employees. 65 percent of Americans currently have employer-based plans. "For those employers who cannot or choose not to pay for health care benefits, they'd pay into a federal program of insurance. Individuals could buy into, or small employers could buy into, it if they can't access it through the private market."

But both plans could have price tags into the tens of billions of dollars; that price is unaffordable in the current economic climate. And some experts say neither plan controls health care costs by keeping people out of the hospital to begin with.

"We have very little focus on prevention in the U.S.," said Dr. Ullmann, "We have lots of treatment, but very little prevention."

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