Health Insurance Blog

With nearly 47 million Americans living without health insurance and health care costs rising exponentially, it looks like 2008 will be the year of health care;

“I believe with voters health care is at the top of their minds,” said Sen. Charlie Shields, R-St. Joseph, and spokesperson for Heartland Regional Medical Center. “Some of the candidates have very specific plans and others I would describe as conceptual.”

Under Clinton’s American Health Choices Plan, Americans will be able to keep their existing coverage or access the same private health insurance offered to members of Congress. In addition to these private options, Americans will also be offered the choice of a public plan, similar to Medicare. Under Clinton’s plan, working families will receive a refundable tax credit to help them afford high-quality insurance. Insurance premiums would be limited to a percentage of the family income. The plan also includes a tax credit for small businesses, as an incentive for providing job-based coverage.

Obama plans to create a new national health plan that allows individuals to buy coverage similar to that available to members of Congress. Individuals who do not qualify for Medicaid or SCHIP, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, will be able to apply for a federal subsidy to buy into the new public plan. In addition, Obama will create a National Insurance Exchange to help individuals who seek private insurance. It will act as a watchdog group, ensuring fairness and making individual coverage more affordable and accessible. Employers who do not make a meaningful contribution to their employees health coverage plans will be required to contribute a percentage of payroll to the national plan. Small employers may qualify for exemption.

Under the Edwards plan, all Americans will have health coverage by 2012. His plan requires that business and other employers either cover their employees or help finance their health coverage. He plans to make insurance affordable by creating tax credits and reforming health insurance laws. Edwards also plans to create regional Health Care Markets. These “markets” will create purchasing pools, which will give every American bargaining power. Once these steps have been taken, Edwards will then require all American residents to acquire health insurance.

Huckabee does not propose a universal health care system. Instead, he advocates policies that will encourage the private sector to bring health care costs down and to improve the free market for health care services. He believes that health care will be more affordable if the government reforms medical liability, encourages the adoption electronic record keeping, makes health insurance portable from job to job, expands health saving accounts and provides tax credits for low-income families. According to Huckabee, “costs have skyrocketed because the party paying for the health care — the employer (OOTC:EPLI) — and the party using the health care — the employee — are not the same.”

According to McCain’s Web site, “we can and must provide access to health care for all our citizens.” His health care plan does not include a universal health care system; he does advocate a $2,500 individual and $5,000 family tax credit to increase incentives for insurance coverage. This would allow Americans to seek alternative health insurance, instead of relying on their employers. McCain also believes families should be able to purchase health insurance across state lines, maximizing their choices, and that insurance should move with individuals from job to job and from work to retirement.

Instead of a universal coverage system, Giuliani advocates making the current system more affordable for Americans. Giuliani proposes a health insurance credit to low-income Americans. Giuliani also believes that price transparency and quality health care will expand competition and drive down prices. He plans to encourage these measures offering block grants to states for programs that reduce costs, improve health care quality and encourage transparency. Giuliani also plans to require the availability of low-cost insurance options.