Opinion Pieces Examine Health Care Proposal of Presumptive Republican Presidential Nominee McCain

Several newspapers on Tuesday published opinion pieces that addressed the health care proposal of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.). Summaries appear below.

• Michael Tanner, St. Paul Pioneer Press: McCain is "proposing the most radical overhaul of American health care policy in a decade-and-a-half," a plan that would change "the way health care is delivered and health insurance is purchased," Tanner, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, writes in a Pioneer Press opinion piece. According to Tanner, although some critics have said that the McCain proposal would place individuals with pre-existing medical conditions "at a disadvantage," his campaign has indicated that he would address the issue by "risk-rating the tax credit" provided to help purchase health insurance, "providing more money to those who need it most." He adds that McCain also would use federal funds to "subsidize state high-risk pools already covering those who have trouble buying insurance in the open market." In addition, the McCain proposal would "attract" the "young and healthy ... into the market before they develop pre-existing conditions," Tanner writes. "As Democrats often claim, the status quo isn't working, and that's because so many people are stuck without any good options," he writes. The McCain proposal would "give people back the choices they need to get better care ... without having the government take over the health system," Tanner writes, adding, "That's a radical change, and the right idea" (Tanner, St. Paul Pioneer Press, 5/6).
  
  
• Rich Lowry, Washington Times: McCain can win the election only "if he trumps his opponent on values and national security and sells the public" on his health care proposal and other parts of his "domestic reform agenda that keep Democrats from the sole ownership of the theme of change," syndicated columnist Lowry writes in a Times opinion piece. As part of a "forward-looking domestic agenda," McCain last week detailed a health care proposal "appropriately triangulated between the status quo and overreaching Democratic proposals," Lowry writes. According to Lowry, the "root of the problem" of increased health care costs is the tax exemption for employer-provided health insurance, which leaves most individuals unaware of the cost of their coverage and of medical procedures. He writes, "If individuals are shopping for health care, insurance companies would have an incentive to provide better plans at lower cost," adding, "If they purchase their own plans, their insurance wouldn't be dependent on their job." The McCain proposal would address both issues and help eliminate "two of the besetting problems of the current system -- affordability and access," Lowry writes. He adds that the McCain proposal represents the "start of what has to be a broader conservative reformation" because the "sole Republican response to the public's economic anxieties can't be trying to talk the public out of them" (Lowry, Washington Times, 5/6).