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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
CONTACT: The Real News Network Taruna Godric, 416-916-5202 ext. 414 E-mail: smcommunications@therealnews. |
Presidential Candidates Don't Cut It With Healthcare Plans
McCain's plan will make things worse and Obama's is not enough
WASHINGTON - October 30 - Despite healthcare spending almost doubling that of other industrialized nations, the United States has a system that needs change, according to Dr. Don McCanne of Physicians for a National Health Policy. Ranked 37th amongst other countries, the health care system will be in the hands of the next President.
Republican presidential candidate John McCain has proposed a $5,000 tax credit for citizens to buy their own insurance. Democratic candidate Barack Obama however, plans to lower employer-based plan premiums and subsidize plans for those without one. Harvard Medical School professor Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, says neither candidate's ideas will fix the system which currently sees 47 million uninsured Americans.
"McCain's plan will make things even worse than they are now," she said. "He would push for acceleration of the privatization of the US medicare system by handing money over to private interest companies."
Woolhandler says that McCain has lied, stating that one can buy a family policy in the US for just over US$5,000, while she pits the price at closer to US$12,000. Citing historic attempts at securing universal healthcare in the US, Woolhandler notes the problems with Obama's plan.
"Obama's plan will not fix the system," she said. "It will not get us universal health care, so we sometimes call it the 'wish it would work' plan."
However, according to McCanne, the government must get involved in healthcare. Bush recently nationalized banks and the question remains as to whether hospitals will face the same fate.
"Every other nation has shown the government has to be involved in healthcare," he said. "That's why they have better systems at significantly lower costs than ours."
Watch the full story on The Real News Network: Presidential Candidates Don't Cut It With Healthcare Plans
4 Comments so far
Show All"McCain's plan will make things worse and Obama's is not enough"
The New England Journal of Medicine has been doing excellent editorials that make that exact point.
New England Journal of Medicine on the Candidates' Plans
They let each candidate write an op-ed for the journal, then one of the editors writes an op-ed about the plan. As with any good journal article, you can tell a lot just from the titles. The title of the piece about McCain's plan is Primum Non Nocere — The McCain Plan for Health Insecurity. "Primum Non Nocere" means "First, do no harm." In other words, McCain's plan will make things worse. The title of the piece about Obama's plan is Symptomatic Relief, but No Cure — The Obama Health Care Reform. That's pretty self-explanatory. As with all things Obama, he hints that he understands what actually needs to get done, but then does everything he can to assure the Powers That Be that he won't rock the boat too much.
That being said, no matter who wins, the plan they are putting forth during the campaign will not be the one that ends up finally getting signed. The real work is for activists to educate our fellow citizens about the need to kick the insurance companies to the curb, rather than just giving them more taxpayer money.
But I thought Barack Obama represented change?
Hmmmmmmmmmm.
Barack Obama was for single payer before he came out against it.
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A great big kudos to Common Dreams for posting a "pox on both their houses" article. I have no problem with CD promoting its agenda to vote for Democrats but I do have a problem when the truth is suppressed to achieve it.
I'd like to see similar articles on the tragic inadequacies of both Obama's and McCain's global climate change strategies.
I'd like to see similar articles on the tragic inadequacies of both Obama's and McCain's plans to end the insane spending for war.
I'd like to see articles on how neither candidate, or party, has any meaningful plan to get big money out of our political process.
And so on and so on ...
If CD wants to push a pro-Obama agenda, fine. Do what you like. But please, please, please don't do it at the expense of suppressing alternative voices. This article on health care is a good start.