Magazines Examine How Major Presidential Candidates Health Care Proposals Might Affect Businesses

Two magazines recently published articles about the effects that the health care proposals of Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) and Republican nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) could have on businesses. Summaries appear below.

• Benefits officers: Benefits officers for large U.S companies prefer the Obama health care proposal over the McCain plan, but they "aren't wild about either option," BusinessWeek reports. According to a recent survey of 187 benefits officers conducted by the law firm Miller & Chevalier Chartered, 46% said that a "pay or play" requirement -- a provision included in the Obama proposal under which employers must offer health insurance or pay a percentage of their payrolls into a federal fund to provide coverage -- would have a strong negative effect on their work force. In addition, 74% of respondents said that the elimination of the tax break for employees who receive health insurance from employers, a provision included in the McCain proposal, would have a strong negative effect on their work force, the survey found. The survey also found that 74% of respondents want the health care debate in the presidential campaign to focus more on quality, rather than an expansion of health insurance, and that 58% want the debate to focus more on reducing costs (Arnst, BusinessWeek, 9/18).
  
  The survey is available online (.pdf).
  
  
• Small businesses: Obama and McCain both have made health a "major talking point" during their campaigns, but which of their proposals would benefit small businesses most "depends on how well your business is doing and how much money you have to spare," Fortune Small Business reports. Karen Davenport, a health care policy expert at the Center for American Progress, said, "Senator Obama's plan is better for small business owners who are now providing health care to their employees or are looking to provide it," adding, "Employers who would like their employees to have health care, but not through work, will be better off under Senator McCain's plan" (Jakobson, Fortune Small Business, 10/1).

Opinion Pieces
Two newspapers recently published opinion pieces that addressed health care issues in the presidential election. Summaries appear below.

• William Brody, San Francisco Chronicle: Obama and McCain "both pledge to reform health care," and although their proposals "differ greatly ... change is surely coming," which is "heartening," Brody, president of Johns Hopkins University, writes in a Chronicle opinion piece. The U.S. currently "has the world's only health care system where everyone plays by his or her own rulebook," Brody writes, adding, "In fact, there is no American health care system," as "there is no one system you can talk about." However, according to Brody, "whenever Washington tries to overhaul something that involves a large universe of interest groups, it usually makes things not simpler, but more complex," and "complexity is already one of the very worst aspects of American health care." He writes, "When Washington addresses health care reform ... it needs to treat complexity as one of the major symptoms." Brody advocates for a national standard for health care billing and coding, community-rated health insurance and quality transparency. He concludes, "I am sure others have ideas as good or better," but the "point is that any plan for reform that fails to drastically reduce the costly, bewildering complexity of American health care will be inadequate or worse, a waste of the nation's time" (Brody, San Francisco Chronicle, 9/18).
  
  
• Mary Jo Feldstein, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "If Wall Street ever rights itself, the next president might shift his attention to fixing the nation's health care mess," but, until that time, the "nation's top medical insurance companies will be waiting with their ideas," Post-Dispatch columnist Feldstein writes. She writes that America's Health Insurance Plans "has been working on this issue for two years, promoting a plan to cover all Americans, holding roundtable discussions across the country and trying to prepare for whomever moves into the White House in January." Feldstein adds, "It's a chance to influence legislation before lawmakers, patients and providers grow frustrated enough to scrap the existing system." According to Feldstein, health insurers "oppose abandoning the employer-based system, saying it's still working for the majority of Americans," and "would prefer to strengthen that system by lowering health care costs and providing government help to those who still cannot afford private coverage." However, the challenge "will be bringing costs down enough to make universal access to private insurance a reality," as "no matter the proposal, accessibility means nothing without affordability," she concludes (Feldstein, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 9/17).

Broadcast Coverage
Minnesota Public Radio's "Midday" on Thursday examined the Obama and McCain health care proposals. The segment includes comments from Obama adviser Richard Brown and McCain adviser Daniel Kessler (Eichten, "Midday," Minnesota Public Radio, 9/18).

CBS' "Early Show" on Wednesday reported on an appearance by Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of former Democratic presidential candidate and former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.), on Tuesday at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia in which she discussed health care and other issues (Solorzano, "Early Show," CBS, 9/17).