McCain's Halloween Health Care Push All Trick and No Treat
November 1, 2007
John McCain takes a bag full of tricks but no treats to the Kaiser Family Foundation's Presidential Candidate Forums today as he presents a health care reform plan that would bring the Bush Administration's failed health care policies back from the dead.
The frightfully feeble plan includes a Bush-like tax credit gimmick that has been criticized as likely to lead to loss of coverage or higher costs for Americans already weighed down by exorbitant health care expenses. Adding insult to injury, McCain's plan would gut mandates in 44 states that require coverage of emergency room care, direct access to an OB/GYN, and other important services. Channeling President Bush, McCain also ignores the plight of the 47 million Americans who are uninsured, supports the President's veto of health care coverage for 10 million American children, and has voted time and again against Medicare and against helping seniors pay for prescription drugs.
"The scariest prospect this Halloween is how little John McCain would do about the health care challenges confronting the American people if he were to become President," said DNC spokesman Luis Miranda. "With votes against health care for uninsured kids, Medicare, and a tax credit gimmick that could force more Americans to lose coverage, McCain's health care plan is clearly more trick than treat. McCain ought to dress up as George W. Bush today, because he's clearly offering the same failed leadership."
Below is a DNC Research Fact Sheet on McCain's Bush-style plan:
NO HELP FOR 47 MILLION WITHOUT INSURANCE
McCain's plan does not focus on "reducing the ranks of the uninsured," of which there are about 47 million, or one in seven Americans. [Wall Street Journal, 10/11/07]
PLAN WOULD GUT REQUIREMENTS PASSED IN ALMOST EVERY STATE
McCain Would Dislodge State Regulations. McCain's plan would allow companies to offer national plans based in states that don't have requirements passed by the vast majority of other states, including emergency care, required by 44 states. "Mr. McCain would also allow people to buy insurance across state lines." [Wall Street Journal, 10/11/07]
State Mandates That Would Be Overridden Include:
• Emergency Room Care (currently required by 44 states)
• Direct Access to OB/GYN (44 states)
• Diabetes (47 States)
• Colorectal Cancer Screening (23 States)
• Mental Health Parity (45 States)
• Post-Mastectomy Breast Reconstruction (33 States)
• Off-Label Prescription Drug Use (36 States)
• Chiropractors (46 states)
• Clinical Trials (20 States)
SOURCE: National Conference of State Legislatures (http://www.ncsl.org/programs/health/hmolaws.htm), accessed 7/30/07; Council For Affordable Health Insurance, accessed 7/30/07 (http://www.cahi.org/cahi_contents/resources/pdf/MandatePub2007.pdf)
TAX CREDITS & INDIVIDUAL MARKET: BUSH ALREADY TRIED THIS AND FAILED
McCain Wants To Move Away From Employer-Based System. "The existing tax break for employer-sponsored insurance would be eliminated, taking a step away from the work-based model in place for the last half century and toward an individual market." [Wall Street Journal, 10/11/07]
- Bush's Plan Panned For Eroding Employer-Sponsored Health Care. Experts criticized Bush's health care plan proposed early in 2007 because it would "erode the employer-sponsored system that still provides coverage to more than half of all Americans." It prompted fear among many that the plan "would prompt more employers to drop health coverage and offer employees an immediate increase in wages to buy coverage on the individual market. But those plans tend to be more expensive, less comprehensive and harder to get for consumers who are already sick." [Washington Post, 1/25/07]
McCain Just Like Bush Plan. "President Bush proposed a similar idea" to the tax credits in McCain's plan, which was dead-on-arrival in Congress in early 2007, because the plan only awarded those who purchased insurance in the private market. [Wall Street Journal, 10/11/07; Washington Post, 1/25/07]
Experts "Skeptical" Of Fundamentals. "But health-care policy experts yesterday were skeptical …saying it will be hard to entice people to leave employer-based programs and also difficult to push marketplace prices down so much that the uninsured can jump in." [New York Newsday, 8/1/07]
Experts: McCain's Plan Would Make It Hard For Those Who Need It Most To Find Coverage. In a plan like McCain's for individual coverage, it would be "difficult for older, sicker people to find affordable coverage or, in some cases, any coverage at all." [Wall Street Journal, 6/7/07]
NY Times: Danger Of Cherry-Picking. Among the central criticisms of moving away from an employer-based system" is the concern that insurance companies would "'cherry pick' by insuring only healthier people, or by charging much higher rates to more vulnerable people -- like those with chronic diseases." [New York Times, 8/1/07]
McCain Has Long History of Votes Against Medicare & Prescription Drug Help for Seniors
1997: McCain Voted in Favor of Raising Eligibility Age, Means Testing. McCain voted in support of provisions that would increase the age for Medicare eligibility to 67, impose a new $5 copayment for home health care visits, and means test Medicare. He also voted in support of provisions that would gradually raise the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67 between 2003 and 2027. [CQ Vote 115, 1997, Rejected 25-75, 6/25/97; Vote was on motion to waive the budget act; CQ Vote 112, Motion to waive the budget act passed 62-38, 6/24/97]
1999: McCain Voted for Tax Plan That Threatened Medicare. McCain voted against a Democratic proposal to save Social Security and extend the solvency of Medicare. Instead, McCain voted for a risky $792 billion tax cut that failed to protect the Social Security program and would have required dipping into the Social Security Trust Fund by $124 billion over five years. [Boston Globe, 3/26/99, Washington Post, 3/26/99; CQ Vote# 59, 3/25/99, DPC Press Release, "A 'Groundhog Day' Report,", 2/2/00; CQ Vote# 86, 4/15/99; New York Times, 4/15/99]
2002: McCain Voted For Less Prescription Drug Coverage for Seniors. In 2002, McCain voted to provide a new voluntary prescription drug benefit for eligible Medicare beneficiaries. It would limit monthly premiums to $24, establish a $259 deductible in 2005 and a 50 percent cost share between $251 and $3,450, and a catastrophic limit of $3,700 for out-of-pocket expenses. It would provide beneficiaries a choice of at least two competing plans. [S 812, Vote 187, 7/23/02, Failed 48-51, D 2-48; R 45-3; I 1-0]
2005: McCain Voted to Cut Billions From Medicare and Medicaid. McCain voted for the budget reconciliation bill that cut $3.9 billion from the amount Medicaid pays for prescription drugs, and cut $3.2 billion by allowing states to reduce benefits and increasing the amount beneficiaries pay. The bill also reduced spending on Medicare by $6.4 billion by requiring that beneficiaries purchase medical equipment and cutting payments to home health care providers. [Senate CQ Vote #363, 12/21/05; CQ, 12/26/05]
