Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report Highlights Recent Developments in Presidential Election Related to Health Care

Summaries of several recent developments in the presidential election related to health care appear below.

• McCain proposal: The health care proposal of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) would not lead to significant changes in the employer-sponsored system, McCain economic adviser Dan Crippen said earlier this week at a forum sponsored by the National Journal Group, CQ HealthBeat reports. According to Crippen, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office, the proposal, which would replace an income tax break for employees who receive health insurance from employers with a refundable tax credit of as much as $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families for the purchase of private coverage, would not "change incentives for employers at all." However, Karen Ignagni, president and CEO of America's Health Insurance Plans, said, "We don't know exactly what the employers would do." Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, said of the proposal, "It would encourage a significant number of employers to drop coverage because this would no longer be such a big benefit for their employees." Kavita Patel, health care policy adviser to presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), said that employers might begin to drop health insurance for employees "when a $2,500 tax credit is not enough" to cover the cost of premiums, which would "shift more people into the individual market." Crippen and Ignagni also said the discussion about health care needs to move away from insurance coverage and premium levels. Crippen said that the question of "who should pay" has dominated the debate so far, but "we really should ask, 'What is it we're buying.'" Ignagni said, "The cost discussion has been seen almost exclusively through the prism of premium costs . . . [but] our premiums follow underlying costs."
  Pollack said that premium levels should not be the sole focus and policy makers need to examine all the costs that affect consumers, adding, "From a consumer perspective you look at all the ways that you pay: you look at premiums and deductibles and copays" (Cooley, CQ HealthBeat, 6/25).
  
  
• Obama health care committee: Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of former Democratic presidential candidate and former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.), has joined Obama's health care committee, the "The Caucus" reports. Elizabeth Edwards said that she will continue to promote an expansion of health insurance to all U.S. residents. She has not endorsed Obama, although John Edwards has endorsed him (Seelye, "The Caucus," New York Times, 6/24).
  
  
• Obama in New Mexico: Obama on Monday discussed health care and other issues during a campaign event in Albuquerque, N.M., the Santa Fe New Mexican reports. He said, "Health care puts such a burden on families," adding, "Even if you've got health insurance, you've seen your copays and deductibles and premiums keep going up. And if you don't have health care, you feel like you are always one illness or one accident away from bankruptcy." Obama added, "We've got to reverse that." According to Obama, under his health care proposal, "there will not be a single person in America that wants health insurance that will not be able to get it." Obama also discussed his proposal to expand the Family and Medical Leave Act (Nash, Santa Fe New Mexican, 6/24).
  
  
• Obama record: "Obama's record from nearly eight years in the Illinois Senate suggests someone who believes strongly that government can make life better for people, whether by offering financial help, banning dangerous guns or providing health care," the AP/New York Times reports. However, Obama "was no ideologue" and "often cooperated with Republican lawmakers, co-sponsoring their legislation and working with them on compromises," according to the AP/Times (Wills, AP/New York Times, 6/25).

Opinion Piece
The "biggest economic issues about which the next president, and those who elect him, ought to be thinking" include health care, the federal budget deficit, inequality and globalization, Wall Street Journal columnist David Wessel writes in his "Capital" column.

Wessel writes, "Until the housing bust and credit crunch, the political system was inching toward tackling" health care after the election, but that "seems less likely now, despite the consensus that the U.S. doesn't get its money's worth from its health care spending." According to Wessel, the U.S. health care system "is so complex it's hard to describe; same applies for proposed solutions."

He writes, "Obama offers a mix of changes, many but not all involving government money, and argues the best solution will emerge from some experimentation." McCain "would instead make the market for health insurance more like the market for computers or cars, relying more on individuals shopping for insurance to create competition now largely absent in health care," Wessel writes (Wessel, Wall Street Journal, 6/26).

Broadcast Coverage
MSNBC's "The New York Times Campaign Edition" on Tuesday included a discussion with Times reporters about health care and other issues in the presidential election ("The New York Times Campaign Edition," MSNBC, 6/24).