Today in Florida, Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain finally unveiled his healthcare plan. The plan is anything but “straight talk.” The new plan continued with his theme of offering refundable tax credits to aid consumers in purchasing insurance policies: $2500 for individuals and $5000 for families. More talk on health savings accounts and transferability of insurance plans between employers. Then there is the same series of efficiencies that politicians have been claiming they could achieve forever. The final and most deceptively evil statement is “Guaranteed Access Plan” or GAP.
The two most deceiving concepts are transferability and guaranteed access. McCain does not tell us that most large US companies are self-insured for healthcare. Large companies simply hire “cost containment” administrators such as United Healthcare (UNH) to run their plans. United Healthcare refers to this as fee-based business. It is impossible for an individual or family to transfer this type of insurance to a new employer.
Guaranteed access is not the same as guaranteed issue. Guaranteed issue commonly refers to the elimination of medical underwriting in the non-group market. Both of the Democratic candidates have stuck with this definition. McCain’s guaranteed access does not eliminate medical underwriting in the individual market. He cleverly says “Guaranteed Access Plan” to make us believe he is promoting guaranteed issue.
Remember George Peppard’s character on the TV show “The A-Team”? Colonel John "Hannibal" Smith always had the plan. Unlike Peppard, McCain’s scheme won’t get any of us out of trouble. In fact, while Senator Clinton simplified her approach in Hillary-care II, John McCain is taking an almost exact copy of Hillary-care I. (McCain’s plan is even worse than Hillary-care I.)
Hillary Clinton’s failed plan wanted to create many insurance pools to spread the risk. Private insurers would then have to bid for each pool. McCain wants to create a separate pool for each state that contains only high-risk members. Like the chaos that exists today, each state would be able to create its own high-risk pool entry and exclusion rules. Just because an individual or family is rejected for insurance (by medical underwriting) does not mean they are guaranteed access to their state’s high-risk pool. The Florida high-risk pool has been closed to new members for years.
No private insurer would ever bid on a pool that contains only high-risk members. A $7B subsidy for states is not enough incentive. The current Medicare system contains only one pool with a mix of risks. But private insurers are still paid more for chronically ill seniors and one set of rules applies to all 50 states.
McCain is naïve about the free market he is promoting. Private insurers see a far greater risk in insuring one high medical usage patient than giving up a substantial amount of premium dollars through medical underwriting. Both Senators Clinton and Obama know this. Clinton responds by proposing an all inclusive risk pool and Obama responds by emulating the Medicare model. Obama proposes subsidizing private insurers for the additional cost of high-risk patients.
It is disheartening that a man with McCain’s extremely high-risk medical history is not promoting a very simple guaranteed issue health insurance system.
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The two most deceiving concepts are transferability and guaranteed access. McCain does not tell us that most large US companies are self-insured for healthcare. Large companies simply hire “cost containment” administrators such as United Healthcare (UNH) to run their plans. United Healthcare refers to this as fee-based business. It is impossible for an individual or family to transfer this type of insurance to a new employer.
Guaranteed access is not the same as guaranteed issue. Guaranteed issue commonly refers to the elimination of medical underwriting in the non-group market. Both of the Democratic candidates have stuck with this definition. McCain’s guaranteed access does not eliminate medical underwriting in the individual market. He cleverly says “Guaranteed Access Plan” to make us believe he is promoting guaranteed issue.
Remember George Peppard’s character on the TV show “The A-Team”? Colonel John "Hannibal" Smith always had the plan. Unlike Peppard, McCain’s scheme won’t get any of us out of trouble. In fact, while Senator Clinton simplified her approach in Hillary-care II, John McCain is taking an almost exact copy of Hillary-care I. (McCain’s plan is even worse than Hillary-care I.)
Hillary Clinton’s failed plan wanted to create many insurance pools to spread the risk. Private insurers would then have to bid for each pool. McCain wants to create a separate pool for each state that contains only high-risk members. Like the chaos that exists today, each state would be able to create its own high-risk pool entry and exclusion rules. Just because an individual or family is rejected for insurance (by medical underwriting) does not mean they are guaranteed access to their state’s high-risk pool. The Florida high-risk pool has been closed to new members for years.
No private insurer would ever bid on a pool that contains only high-risk members. A $7B subsidy for states is not enough incentive. The current Medicare system contains only one pool with a mix of risks. But private insurers are still paid more for chronically ill seniors and one set of rules applies to all 50 states.
McCain is naïve about the free market he is promoting. Private insurers see a far greater risk in insuring one high medical usage patient than giving up a substantial amount of premium dollars through medical underwriting. Both Senators Clinton and Obama know this. Clinton responds by proposing an all inclusive risk pool and Obama responds by emulating the Medicare model. Obama proposes subsidizing private insurers for the additional cost of high-risk patients.
It is disheartening that a man with McCain’s extremely high-risk medical history is not promoting a very simple guaranteed issue health insurance system.
No disclosures.
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