I blogged the debate for health care, and then forgot I had posted a diary yesterday and had to wait until this morning.
McCain started off again this debate wishing the best to someone in the hospital.
We all have loved ones in the hospital. Last time it was Kennedy who McCain wished will for being in the hospital, only he wasn’t in the hospital. He had been discharged before the debate. Tonight McCain wished Nancy Reagan well for being in the hospital. We all have loved ones who are sick and in the hospital or who have died in the last year. I buried my mother last weekend.
This is a universal truth. People get sick and die.
Then the question is why we do we, as a society, not take care of the sick and do our best to keep people healthy?
How can McCain express concern and sympathy for those who are hospitalized and then at the same time offer a plan that will actually increase health care costs for millions and cause another 20 million to lose their employer based coverage?
How can the first word out of McCain's mouth in these debates be wishing well those who are gravely ill, and at the same time propose to throw Americans into the for-profit private insurance market where they will be denied care, denied payment, and be at risk of medical bankruptcy?
How can McCain be against "government run" health care, when that is all he has known his whole life. He had military care under his Dad the Admiral, he had military care when he was in the Navy, and he has had government run health care as a member of Congress for the last few decades?
BOTTOM LINE
If you have Medicaid - Obama will expand it and McCain will cut it.
If you have Medicare - Obama will improve it and McCain will cut it.
If you have employer insurance - Obama will make it more affordable (on average reducing your cost by $2500) and McCain will tax it and you may lose it.
If you buy from an insurance company - Obama will not allow them to deny you coverage because of pre-existing conditions and McCain will allow them to sell across state lines, avoiding all state regulations and allowing them to continue to cherry pick and deny coverage to those who are sick.
And if you are uninsured, Obama will make affordable and comprehensive health insurance choices available to you because he wants all Americans to have coverage and McCain will give you a $5000 tax credit to buy a $12,000 policy.
Update:
I also want to thank the person who reminded me that McCain also said that paying for transplants WONT BE COVERED in the policies he will give you. Those are "cadillac" benefits. HUH? Transplants are life saving procedures. McCain just issued a death sentence to the thousands of Americans waiting for transplants.
McCain accuses Obama of wanting a system that looks like England or Canada. HE IS WRONG.
Obama's plan builds on the employer system - it doesn't tear it down like McCains.
Obama's plan gives the non-elderly the choice of a private plan at GROUP rates with all the protections that provides or the choice of a public plan like Medicare (except with better benefits).
Obama will stregthen Medicare, not try to privatize it like McCain.
Obama will expand Medicaid for the poor and SCHIP for low income children,. McCain voted AGAINST renewing the children's health insurance program twice in the last year.
What did McCain have to say in the debate about his health plan ?
McCain said, "It’ll be affordable health care" (referring to his plan).
Yes, it will be affordable. But it won’t be worth much of anything. It’s called “you are on your own buddy.”
MCain's plan won’t be comprehensive. The benefits will be skinny. Lots of drugs and treatments and providers and hospitals and tests will not be covered. You will think it should be covered. But you actually don’t find out this truth, until you submit a claim and it is denied, again and again and again.
McCain wants everyone to buy in the private for-profit health insurance market. The private for-profit insurance companies are NOT on your side! Their mission is not health, it is profit. They are not looking out for you.
The cost sharing under McCain’s plan will be HIGH. You will pay a lower monthly premium but in exchange, you will pay a much higher portion of your total health care costs. Deductibles of $2,000 or more. 25% cost sharing with no limits. Can you say bankruptcy?
You lose value under McCain’s plan.
McCain's plan also might not be very good quality. We have unacceptable levels of medical errors and health care associated infections, some that are not treatable with antibiotics. Obama has the stronger proposal to improve health care quality.
Obama's turn
Obama’s priority
"Programs that don’t work should be cut. Programs we need must work better."
Obama said we need to invest in health care. To make investments now so that people have coverage and we can prevent disease, that will save in Medicare and Medicaid in the future.
Obama wants to invest in the American people and that means not only high quality, affordable health care for everyone, but also investing in prevention and public health and keeping people healthy.
At one point in the debate McCain was whining that Obama's ads against his health care plan are unfair.
Please, stop whining and tell us again how you pay for your $5,000 tax credit (which by the way goes straight to the insurance company and not into your pocket). McCain will TAX your employee health benefits as income and he will cut Medicare and Medicaid by $1.3 billion dollars over the next decade. That is not a plan - it is a disaster.
OBAMA FOR UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE
VIDEO: Health Care discussion at debate