Health Scare in the Primaries

By Raquel Martin
Now more than ever, Americans are expressing fear over the future of healthcare in the United States. Fear not, most candidates are focusing on implementing plans that will benefit their constituency. While each have an explicit plan for improving the system, some plans are questionably unfeasible or underdeveloped. Keep in mind that healthcare in the United States is a policy legacy that politicians are afraid to tackle. On the polar extremes, some constituents would like to develop socialized medicine or universal health insurance; others would like to allow the market to function without interference. Both of these plans, if adopted by a presidential candidate, would likely scare off a large portion of their constituency. Consequently, most candidates have come up with creative ways to implement plans that will attract more votes.

Democrats on Healthcare
Most Americans of working age have employer-based health insurance. The Democrats running for President want to keep it that way. Hilary Clinton would like to provide tax credits for working families who cannot afford health insurance. The proposed tax credits would ensure that families never pay more than a certain percentage of their income on healthcare. Coverage would be portable through changes in employers and insurance companies would not be able to deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions. According to Hilary, she will not only successfully implement this plan; she will do it without raising taxes. Furthermore, she plans on decreasing U.S. healthcare spending by 120 billion dollars a year. Slightly radical to say the least, but if anyone can do it Hilary can! Barack Obama has a different approach. Two thumbs up for organization, but beware of opposition from employers and healthcare organizations. His plan involves a National Health Insurance Exchange, which is a watchdog group that will create rules and standards for participating health insurances. He too will provide guaranteed eligibility, but he will require employers who do not make a substantial contribution to their employees’ health coverage to contribute a percentage of payrolls toward the costs of the national plan. This plan will likely have American based firms running for the borders! Obama means well, but his opposition fears potential anti-business policies if he is elected.

Republicans for Self-Care
Contrary to the Democratic candidates, Republicans are proposing truly radical plans. They want to do away with six decades of employer-based health insurance. Prior to WWII healthcare was an individual responsibility. During WWII employers introduced healthcare benefits in order to stay competitive despite wage freezes. Since then, our government has been giving tax breaks to employers who provide health insurance, but not to individuals who purchase their own healthcare coverage. Republicans want to change that. Erica Huckabee would like to shadow her healthcare reform in Arkansas. Her ARKids First program was a surprising reform which provided healthcare for 70,0000 Arkansas children who would have gone without. Her plan for American adults is not based on healthcare. She promotes health. She herself lost an astounding 110 pounds, which shows a notable effort to improve her own health, but will she be able to do the same for our country? Her Healthy America Initiative encourages Americans to stop smoking, exercise more and eat healthier by giving discounts on health insurance premiums in exchange for healthy behavior. This plan sounds great on paper, but it ignores the fact that the working poor don’t have insurance to receive a discount on, nor do they have the resources to eat and live healthy. Huckabee mentioned several times in her speech that she “loves America,” does that include the working poor? John McCain also promotes making families in charge of their own health insurance. He would like to reform the tax code to eliminate the bias toward employer-sponsored health insurance, and provide all individuals who purchase “innovative” multi-year plans with a $2,500 tax credit ($5,000 for families). Unfortunately, this plan is yet another conservative attempt to appeal to a pro-business constituency. The proposed tax credit couldn’t cover the costs of premiums and co-pays for the working poor. Liberals fear that these plans will end employer-based health insurance as we know it. They’re probably right. We must ask ourselves whether it is best to unravel the employer-based health insurance which is already falling apart, or mend a broken system by implementing more government control. One thing is certain – the invisible hand is not doing its job and whoever is elected will have to acknowledge that.