The future of health care

“How could McCain get a Democratic Congress to pass his plan with an unregulated insurance plan?” and “How could Obama pass his plan with the current financial crisis?” Joanne Silberner the Health Policy Correspondent for National Public Radio, began a panel by outlining each of the presidential candidates individual health care reform plans.

According to last week’s poll by the Los Angeles Times asking readers which candidate was best fit to take care of health care, Obama received 54 percent approval, while McCain passed with 25 percent. Obama’s plan would mandate employers to cover their employees and mandatory for children. McCain’s plan would cause employers to lose their tax exclusion and would leave the current tax and insurance system intact.

Dr. Uwe Reinhardt, a professor of economics and public policy at the Woodrow Wilson school, showed GDP charts that spanned the past four president’s terms and estimated the expenditures to reform not only health care, but the whole insurance market approximately $298.7 billion. Reinhardt said that America cannot afford the changes necessary for universal health care, “We can no longer afford to be our brother or sister’s keeper.”

Dr. Robert Moffit, senior fellow of the Heritage Foundation, said that America is “doing many things right” as far as health care goes. He said that the U.S. is a leader in medical science and technology, as well as pharmaceuticals and vaccines. He said the real problem with America’s health system is really its financing and tax policy. His conclusion was that health insurance must become accessible for individuals regardless of employment.

John Rother, the AARP’s Executive Vice President for Policy, outlined five necessary elements for the health care reform discussion. He advocated a federal regulatory agency to oversee health care with congressional oversight. He also had a warned for the next president, “Unless health care reform is luanched in the first year of the President’s term, it is not likely to succeed.”