Dow Jones on Thursday examined how Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) "has his work cut out for him in trying to sell voters on his economic plan," including his health care proposal.

"Perhaps McCain's most radical proposal is a dramatic shift away from the way the majority of Americans get their health insurance through their jobs," as his health care proposal would eliminate "both the tax deduction that employers can take for offering coverage and the tax exclusion workers get for taking it" and replace "it with a tax credit that may encourage more people to buy coverage on the individual market," according to Dow Jones. The proposal would replace a 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.

According to Henry Aaron, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, although the employer-sponsored health insurance model has problems, McCain's proposal likely would lead employees to purchase less comprehensive coverage and pay higher out-of-pocket costs. He said, "It's important that people understand it would be a very different regime," adding, "I think the switchover would work dandy for my 24-year-old research assistant. It wouldn't work so well for the 50-year-old couple who may not be seriously ill but are still going to be medically underwritten and face significantly higher premiums." In addition, he said, "There are a host of uncertainties regarding a service I think most people regard as very fundamental" (Gerencher, Dow Jones, 9/4).

Efforts by Palin on Health Care Examined
The Washington Post on Friday examined how the fight that Republican vice presidential nominee Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin "has waged over competition in health care has been one of her signature efforts since she became governor in 2007" and "offers a look at how the little-known GOP vice presidential nominee would approach a complicated policy dispute."

As governor, Palin "inherited a vexing health care problem common to many states: whether to let small clinics compete freely against hospitals for such services as outpatient surgery and MRIs," according to the Post. "Palin and others think that more competition will reduce costs and lead to better care," but hospitals and others "counter that increased competition leads to higher operating costs in areas that are not directly related to health care, such as advertising, that are passed on to consumers," the Post reports. Palin "responded with an aggressive, uncompromising and, to date, unsuccessful push to promote competition -- an effort consistent with her free-market ideals but also welcomed by the medical groups that helped finance her 2006 campaign and an industry lobbyist who served as a top political adviser," the Post reports.

In her speech at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday, Palin said that she "took on the old politics-as-usual in Juneau" and fought special interests and lobbyists. However, "her efforts to reform health care reveal a more complicated picture," as she accepted more than $34,000 from "medical groups that were trying to spur competition" and worked "closely with Paul Fuhs, an Anchorage lobbyist who was helping imaging firms battle hospitals over control of a lucrative trade," according to the Post (Mosk, Washington Post, 9/5).

Broadcast Coverage
In a continuing series called "Meet the Joneses," ABC's "Good Morning America" looks at how the candidates' proposals would affect a California family. Friday's installment examines McCain's health care plan (Strathmann et al., "Good Morning America," ABC, 9/5).

American Public Media's "Marketplace" on Thursday included commentary from economist Glenn Hubbard. According to Hubbard, despite arguments by McCain and other Republicans, government must have a role in efforts to change the health care system (Ryssdal, "Marketplace," American Public Media, 9/4).

Reprinted with kind permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

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