Subject: [big campaign] AFL-CIO op-ed in Denver Post on McCain's healthcare plan
From: "Alison Omens" <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 22 May 2008 15:50:59 -0400
List-Id: <bigcampaign.googlegroups.com>

http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_9338620

Who has your health at heart?

By John Sweeney and Mike Cerbo
Article Last Updated: 05/22/2008 05:08:58 AM MDT

After he retired, Paul was just getting by on what he had. But that was
without health care coverage. Now, and probably for the rest of his
life, this Denver resident will work part-time to pay for health care,
or lose everything. As he gets older, his health insurance and other
costs go up while the coverage goes down. 
The future of people like Paul, as well as millions of others around
the country, is essentially what's at stake in the upcoming election.
Health care will be one of the headline issues of the elections at every
level. 

Will we as a country ensure that health care is affordable and
available to everyone in America, or won't we? That's the debate. 

On one side are those (like Sen. John McCain and President Bush) who
believe that health care is a business proposition, a market- based
commodity from which government should step out entirely. They say
people will be more responsible consumers if they purchase health care
on their own. 

McCain has proposed taxing the health insurance that people receive
through their jobs. While this may sound like a small tweak of the tax
code, it is actually a radical change. Without the incentive of being
able to provide untaxed health care benefits, many employers would drop
coverage and workers would be pushed en masse into the private health
care marketplace. There, they would have to negotiate on their own with
insurers. Major subsidies to workers through their employers to pay for
health care would be eliminated entirely and replaced with a small tax
credit that amounts to less than half the average price of premiums. 

Under this scenario, existing regulations would also be eliminated. For
example, state laws that mandate coverage for mammograms or hospital
stays after childbirth could be ignored at will. 

Quality health care would become like mansions and limousines --
something available only to the very rich. CEOs and their families would
get top-of-the-line medical treatments and everyone else would be left
to fend for themselves. 

On the other side are those (like Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack
Obama), who believe that the lack of guaranteed affordable health care
is in itself what must be addressed, and are skeptical of the idea that
the market is the right entity to put in charge. After all, while costs
have been spiraling out of control for health consumers, the average CEO
of a health insurance company earns some $8 million a year. 

Both Clinton and Obama, for example, would leave in place the option of
employer-sponsored insurance for those who want it, as well as offer a
fail-safe fallback in the form of a public plan. 

Both would also have government act as a watchdog to curb
insurance-company excesses, while McCain would ask the health insurance
industry to regulate itself. 

For working families, the choice is obvious. The AFL-CIO recently
conducted a survey of more than 26,000 Americans, providing strong
evidence that the free market is not working. One in three Americans who
have health insurance report skipping medical care because of the cost,
and a quarter say they have serious problems paying for the care they
need. Yet the insurance industry is raking in record profits ($15
billion in 2006). 

Most voters agree that we need broad reform to reduce costs, provide
care to more Americans and improve the quality of care. Now it's up to
voters to take a close look at the candidates and decide who really has
their health and their future at heart. 

John Sweeney is national president of the AFL-CIO. Mike Cerbo is
executive director of the Colorado AFL-CIO.

Alison Omens
AFL-CIO Media Outreach
202-637-5083 phone 
202-341-7263 cell
202-508-6986 fax
[email-masked]

--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "big campaign" group.

To post to this group, send to [email-masked]

To unsubscribe, send email to [email-masked]

E-mail [email-masked] with questions or concerns
 
This is a list of individuals. It is not affiliated with any group or organization.
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---