Nobel Prize Winner "Terrified" by McCain's Health Plan

[Annie Birdsong]

"McCain's plan would do for health care what deregulation
has done for banking. And I'm terrified," said Paul Krugman,
winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics.

Here are selected quotes from the New York Times article:

"Conservative Republicans still hate Medicare, and would kill it
if they could - in fact, they tried to gut it during the Clinton
years (that's what the 1995 shutdown of the government was
all about). But so far they haven't been able to pull that off.

"So John McCain wants to destroy the health insurance of
nonelderly Americans instead.

"Most Americans under 65 currently get health insurance
through their employers. That's largely because the tax code
favors such insurance: your employer's contribution to
insurance premiums isn't considered taxable income, as
long as the employer's health plan follows certain rules. In
particular, the same plan has to be available to all employees,
regardless of the size of their paycheck or the state of their health.

"This system does a fairly effective job of protecting those
it reaches, but it leaves many Americans out in the cold.
Workers whose employers don't offer coverage are forced
to seek individual health insurance, often in vain. For one
thing, insurance companies offering "nongroup" coverage
generally refuse to cover anyone with a pre-existing medical
condition. And individual insurance is very expensive,
because insurers spend large sums weeding out "high-risk"
applicants - that is, anyone who seems likely to actually
need the insurance. ... Mr. McCain ... wants to blow up
the current system, by eliminating the tax break for
employer-provided insurance. And he doesn't offer a
workable alternative.

"Without the tax break, many employers would drop their
current health plans. Several recent nonpartisan studies
estimate that under the McCain plan around 20 million
Americans currently covered by their employers would
lose their health insurance."


Read the entire article in the New York Times:
Health Care Destruction
Oct.6, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/06/opinion/06krugman.html

[acornct_dad]

What do expect a bleeding heart liberal to say. He likes it - of course not.
Liberals will never say that they like a conservative plan. They seem to
bash conservatives and don't really care because they have no conscience.

Post by Annie Birdsong
"McCain's plan would do for health care what deregulation
has done for banking. And I'm terrified," said Paul Krugman,
winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics.
"Conservative Republicans still hate Medicare, and would kill it
if they could - in fact, they tried to gut it during the Clinton
years (that's what the 1995 shutdown of the government was
all about). But so far they haven't been able to pull that off.
"So John McCain wants to destroy the health insurance of
nonelderly Americans instead.
"Most Americans under 65 currently get health insurance
through their employers. That's largely because the tax code
favors such insurance: your employer's contribution to
insurance premiums isn't considered taxable income, as
long as the employer's health plan follows certain rules. In
particular, the same plan has to be available to all employees,
regardless of the size of their paycheck or the state of their health.
"This system does a fairly effective job of protecting those
it reaches, but it leaves many Americans out in the cold.
Workers whose employers don't offer coverage are forced
to seek individual health insurance, often in vain. For one
thing, insurance companies offering "nongroup" coverage
generally refuse to cover anyone with a pre-existing medical
condition. And individual insurance is very expensive,
because insurers spend large sums weeding out "high-risk"
applicants - that is, anyone who seems likely to actually
need the insurance. ... Mr. McCain ... wants to blow up
the current system, by eliminating the tax break for
employer-provided insurance. And he doesn't offer a
workable alternative.
"Without the tax break, many employers would drop their
current health plans. Several recent nonpartisan studies
estimate that under the McCain plan around 20 million
Americans currently covered by their employers would
lose their health insurance."
Health Care Destruction
Oct.6, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/06/opinion/06krugman.html