Ten things you should know about John McCains' Health Care Plan

1. McCain will tax your health care benefits at work

McCain's health care plan will make people pay income taxes on the value of their health care benefits at work. So if your employer pays $10,000 a year for your health insurance, you will start having to pay taxes on that $10,000, just like you do on your wages or salary.

2. And give you a tax credit for less than five months of health care (after that you're on your own).

McCain will give a family a tax credit of $5,000, - paid to your insurance company - but the average cost of a family health care plan in 2007 was $12,680. So McCain's plan will give you enough to pay from January to May. You'll need to come up with the money for June through December!

3. You may be one of 20 million people who will lose your health benefits

A study published in the respected journal Health Affairs found that 20 million will lose their employer paid for health insurance under the McCain plan, because many employers will decide they no longer have a responsibility to pay for health coverage for their workers.

4. And be forced to buy health insurance on your own

When you lose your health coverage at work, you'll need to look for coverage in the individual market. But you'll no longer have your employer doing the shopping for coverage and paying for coverage.

5. You won't be covered for pre-existing conditions - and may not be able to get coverage at all

When you are on your own, health insurance companies do not cover pre-existing conditions and they often refuse to sell any coverage to people who have had asthma, cancer or other common diseases. The federal law that protects people who get health insurance at work doesn't apply when you buy health insurance in the individual market.

6. But you will pay higher premiums as you get older or sicker or if you're a woman

In the individual market, health insurance companies charge higher premiums to people as they get older and charge more for people who have been treated for illnesses. Younger women get charged more than men of the same age, simply because they can become pregnant.

7. You may have deductibles as high as $11,200 a year

You may only be able to afford insurance plans with high deductibles, which under current federal law can be as much as $11,200 for a family plan.

8. With barebones benefits and no consumer protections

John McCain's plan would take away the protections that your state now offers people who buy health insurance on their own. Your state law requires health insurance to provide standard benefits and consumer protections. McCain's plan allows health insurance companies to get out of following your state's health insurance laws.

9. McCain protects health insurance profits - by passing the cost to taxpayers and the sick.

McCain's solution for people whom health insurance companies won't cover - because they've been treated for an illness - is to put them in a high-risk pool, paid for by state taxpayers and by charging high premiums.

10. Of course, John McCain won't have to worry about any of this for his health care.

You may not be covered, but John McCain will. As a Senator, he'll still get good coverage paid for by the federal government. As a veteran, he can also get cared for through the Veteran's Administration. And as a senior, he can get Medicare. That's three ways that the government provides health care for John McCain.

(also posted at the NOW! blog)

Comments

[Snoop2]

E-mail this nitwit and tell him he is out of touch with reality. He is totally unfit to lead the nation!

Let him know what you think of him and his idiotic medical plan!

http://www.johnmccain.com/Contact/

[ClareP]

Thanks for writing this-- I have been waiting & waiting for this to get reported. I did my own research into it and was appalled- but I rarely hear it mentioned in the press, and when it is, it is in the context of "Biden says McCain will tax your health care benefits," followed by a so-called "fact check" that says, 'oh, but what he left out is that you get a $5000 tax credit.' They don't bother to say that you only get that tax credit if you give up your employer-sponsored insurance, or that the average insurance costs over $12K a year for a family, and THAT is with reduced rates because of being in an employee pool, so it will cost much more on the open market. This will cost a fortune in government money to cause most Americans to have to spend far more, and ultimately to likely lose their insurance. This isn't a "fix," it's a plan to get rid of health insurance altogether (is he really for medical spending accounts??)

[festinog]

Well this is beginning to make sense. For the last two weeks McCain has suddenly started to publicly compare Irelands business tax rate with that of the US; 16% versus 11%. He claims that this difference is one of the reasons businesses chose to base themselves in places like Ireland instead of the US. What he FAILS to mention is that in Ireland the average wage earner pays between 20% and 40% income tax to make up for this loss in state revenue. In the US the average earner pays 15%-25%.

Clearly his policies on health benefits for the middle/working class is where he intends to make up this short fall. McCains health policy amount to a stealth tax on the middle and working classes with which he intends to pay for his lower business tax, as well as maintaining the tax cuts for the wealthy introduced by Bush. Robbing the poor to pay the rich.

[Jacki]

He's actually right about the $5000 tax credit. McCain says on his own website that you don't get that money. It goes directly to the insurance company:

John McCain Will Reform The Tax Code To Offer More Choices Beyond Employer-Based Health Insurance Coverage. While still having the option of employer-based coverage, every family will receive a direct refundable tax credit - effectively cash - of $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families to offset the cost of insurance. Families will be able to choose the insurance provider that suits them best and the money would be sent directly to the insurance provider. Those obtaining innovative insurance that costs less than the credit can deposit the remainder in expanded Health Savings Accounts.

[ClareP]

I'll bet insurance companies are loving this.

[jeffepops]

While I oppose McCain and his health care plan -- because it merely plays with the existing failed system -- you are a little disingenous in your portrayal of Points #1 and 2.

Yes, we would pay income taxes on our benefits -- at our marginal rate (it's unclear to me if we would also pay FICA/Social Security tax). On benefits valued at $12,000, someone with a 25% marginal rate would pay $3,000 in taxes; at 30% the taxes would be $3600, etc.

A $5,000 tax credit is money that is returned directly to the taxpayer -- this would actually be a net BENEFIT to the taxpayer of $1400 (30% marginal tax rate) to $2000 (25% MTR). You may be confusing tax credits with deductions.

The real danger is that employers will stop providing group health insurance plans, resulting in families having to find their own individual insurance policies, which are usually much more costly , and exclusionary. In addition, as health insurance costs rise, the credit will likely not offset rising costs. Basically, the McCain plan is geared to throw indiviuals and families out on their own to sink or swim -- resulting in the same disaster we saw as the result of deregulation of the banking sector.

The McCain plan does nothing to eliminate the 30% of health care dollars skimmed by the insurance companies, or to control any aspect of health care costs or quality. It is a red herring, much like putting lipstick on a pig...

[ClareP]

Your math & assumptions are wrong here.

1) the roughly $3000 to $3600 would be paid ON TOP OF any premiums you pay for employer-sponsored health insurance. You would get NO tax credit unless you drop that & buy your own on the open market.

2) If you do buy your own (at a likely cost of well over $12,000, for probably a higher deductible and less coverage, all given that you are not in a negotiated pool to save costs, your insurance company, NOT YOU, would get the $5000. That would leave you with over $7000 in premiums still to pay.

3) add to that that if the effect, as expected, is that fewer employers offer plans, then we have Americans paying vastly more for less coverage, all on the open market, with many more ending up totally uninsured, and

4) the taxpayers get to pay a fortune for this whole thing, in the form of these payments to the insurance companies.

Really, if anyone can see ANYTHING good or reasonable about this, let me in on it, because it looks like a real lose-lose proposition that no thinking person could seriously put forward.