Daily News Updates - Health Insurance News

Don’t Elect McCain’s Health Plan, Pt.2 – McCain's tax proposal forecast.

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As far as reducing the numbers of the 45 million Americans who have no health insurance, instead of helping, this number is expected to increase to around 66 million within five years. The crisis will get almost no relief at all. Eventually, our whole health insurance structure will collapse under its own weight. Sara Collins, directs a health insurance program at the Commonwealth Fund, a non-partisan organization of healthcare experts. She predicts: "If companies know their employees have the tax credit, it relieves them of the burden of providing coverage." McCain's plan "moves people out of the employer system and to the individual market," which is just what McCain is after. More profits for the health insurance industry.

At the present rate, which is expected to continue in force under Mr. McCain’s plan, health insurance/care will quickly soar up to 13% annual hikes within five years. The health insurance tax credit increases will only trickle at the rate of inflation (which may be held to 0% due to our current deep recession).

Caveat emptor. The McCain advisers assure us that none of this will happen. They don’t believe employer-based health insurance will suffer and they assure us that Mr. McCain will make sure that the tax credit doesn’t “lag behind the cost of coverage.” This little-know danger is stated in the outline located on the McCain campaign website, but is almost impossible to find. Noted expert Jonathan B. Oberlander, associate professor social medicine and health policy with UNC at Chapel Hill tried to remedy this, but got nowhere.

McCain's senior economic policy adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin doesn’t see younger, healthier workers abandoning their company-sponsored health insurance plans. Everything hinges on this assumption. It could be the catalyst to spark all of the other events.

Continued…
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