Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report Features Recent Developments Related To Health Care Issues In Presidential Election

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 15 Oct 2008 - 10:00 PDT

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

• Health care as election issue: The Washington Times on Tuesday examined how "voters seem to be focused on the general state of the economy rather than improving health coverage" in the presidential election. Paul Herrnson, a political science professor at the University of Maryland, said, "Americans care a lot about health care," but "will health care be at the top of people's minds when they go to the polls on November 4? No, not likely." In addition, because of the cost of the recently approved bailout for Wall Street firms, broad health care reform is unlikely next year, experts said. Diane Rowland, executive vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation and executive director of Kaiser's Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured and executive vice president of the Foundation, said that the health care proposals announced by Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) and Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) are not likely to be "budget-neutral" and "the budget right now is stressed" (Boston, Washington Times, 10/14).
  
  
• Poll: According to the poll, 53% of voters cited the economy as the most important issue in their choice for president, followed by 7% who cited health care, the Post reports. The poll, conducted between Oct. 8 and Oct. 11, included interviews with 1,101 U.S. adults. The poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points (Kornblut/Cohen, Washington Post, 10/13).
  
  The poll is available online.
  
  
• Stanford Medicine: The latest issue of the journal Stanford Medicine contains several articles related to health care issues in the presidential election. The journal includes articles written by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) about the proposals for health care reform; an article written by Nobel laureate Roger Kornberg about the risks of decreased federal funding for basic research; an article written by Kaiser Family Foundation President and CEO Drew Altman that analyzed poll data and voter trends; an interview with Safeway CEO Steven Burd in which he discusses the benefits of universal health insurance for businesses; an open letter written by author Chris Mooney in which he asks the next president to separate science policy and ideology; an examination of the McCain and Obama health care proposals; an analysis of a failed effort by California to implement universal health insurance that includes comments from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R); and an profile on the health care lobbying industry (Stanford School of Medicine release, 10/9).

Examination of Health Care Proposals
Several newspapers recently examined the McCain and Obama health care proposals. Summaries appear below.

• Los Angeles Times: The Times on Monday provided a guide that voters can use to analyze the McCain and Obama health care proposals (Brink, Los Angeles Times, 10/13).
  
  
• McClatchy/Orlando Sentinel: McClatchy/Sentinel on Sunday examined how, although both McCain and Obama have acknowledged the long-term financial problems of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, neither has announced a proposal to reform entitlement programs (McClatchy/Orlando Sentinel, 10/12).
  
  
• Miami Herald: The Herald on Sunday examined the different philosophies of McCain and Obama on health care reform (Dorschner, Miami Herald, 10/12).
  
  
• Philadelphia Daily News: The Daily News on Monday provided a detailed explanation of the McCain and Obama health care proposals and included analysis from observers about the prospects of the plans (Lucey, Philadelphia Daily News, 10/13).
  
  
• South Florida Sun-Sentinel: The Sun-Sentinel on Sunday examined the McCain health care proposal and comments on the plan from the McCain campaign and observers (LaMendola [1], South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 10/12). In addition, the Sun-Sentinel compared the McCain and Obama health care proposals. According to the article, neither "candidate clearly spells out how to pay for his plan" or "offers a fix for Medicare's financial woes," and "analysts are not sure either plan can do what it says or rein in health costs" (LaMendola [2], South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 10/12).
  
  
• St. Petersburg Times: The St. Petersburg Times on Sunday examined the accuracy of claims that McCain and Obama have made about their health care proposals (Drobnic Holan, St. Petersburg Times, 10/12).
  
  
• Washington Post: The Post on Tuesday highlighted how McCain and Obama would address health insurance (Washington Post, 10/14).

Editorials, Opinion Pieces
Summaries of several recent editorials and opinion pieces that addressed health care issues in the presidential election appear below.

• Judith Graham, Chicago Tribune's "Triage": "The financial crisis roiling Wall Street and Main Street will make wide-ranging health reform all but impossible next year and perhaps for years to come," Graham writes in the Tribune's "Triage" blog. According to Graham, McCain and Obama both have proposed measures to reduce health care costs to help pay for their proposals, but experts maintain that such measures would require significant initial investments before they would result in significant savings. She adds, "Even if funding wasn't an issue, it's highly unlikely that substantial health care cost reductions will materialize any time soon" (Graham, "Triage," Chicago Tribune, 10/10).
  
  
• Foster's Daily Democrat: The "economy may have taken front and center in this fall's election cycle with the debacle on Wall Street," but the "issue of affordable and accessible health care has not been forgotten," a Daily Democrat editorial states. According to the editorial, both McCain and Obama "have offered widely divergent approaches to address the problem of spiraling health care costs and accessibility." McCain "argues that the role of government is to promote, not control," health care, and "Obama looks sympathetically on programs such as those in Maine and Massachusetts," the editorial states. The "mantra of those pushing universal health care is that it will save money and somehow pay for itself through reduced health care costs elsewhere," but that "has not been the case in either Maine or Massachusetts," according to the editorial. The editorial concludes that "the wrong choice when it comes to promoting affordable and responsible health care will cost not only money but lives" (Foster's Daily Democrat, 10/12).
  
  
• Ron Brownstein, National Journal: The recent debate between McCain and Obama on health care is one of the most "instructive" in the presidential campaign, columnist Brownstein writes in a National Journal opinion piece. "In several speeches, Obama accurately framed the central contrast between the nominees' approaches" -- the McCain proposal supports "autonomy," and the Obama plan "prizes solidarity," Brownstein writes. According to Brownstein, the McCain proposal would "upend" the employer-sponsored health insurance system and could prompt employers to drop coverage for employees. "McCain's camp insists that his proposal would not undermine employer-based coverage," but "few experts agree," Brownstein writes. In addition, although "McCain's approach would save people money when they are young," the plan would "expose them to greater financial and health risks as they age," which "repudiates the essence of insurance, which aims to spread risk not only across the population but across an individual's lifetime," according to Brownstein. However, "Obama is wrong to portray McCain's plan as a tax hike," and the Obama proposal "raises its own tough questions, especially about cost," Brownstein writes (Brownstein, National Journal, 10/11).
  
  
• Morton Kondracke, New Haven Register: McCain and Obama during the last presidential debate "both perpetuated the fantasy that they can keep their policy proposals intact -- and add new ones -- and pay for them with fuzzy spending cuts," despite the recently approved bailout for Wall Street firms, Roll Call Executive Editor Kondracke writes in a Register opinion piece. According to Kondracke, although "McCain claims his health care reforms would be 'budget-neutral,' the Tax Policy Center estimates that they'd cost $1.3 trillion over 10 years -- and only 'modestly trim the number of the uninsured.'" He adds that, although McCain senior policy adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin recently told the Wall Street Journal that McCain would finance his proposal in part through a $1.3 trillion reduction in Medicare and Medicaid spending, Holtz-Eakin "didn't say how, except to mention eliminating fraud." Meanwhile, the Tax Policy Center has "estimated that Obama's health plan would cost $1.6 trillion," though the center also notes that it would cover nearly all children and many uninsured adults, Kondracke writes (Kondracke, New Haven Register, 10/13).
  
  
• Karen Heller, Philadelphia Inquirer: "In an economy that resembles a natural disaster -- except that it was man-made and avoidable -- Americans are concerned about health care and higher education and how they're going to pay for them," Inquirer columnist Heller writes. On health care, McCain "applies the same marvelous free-market applications that got us into this fiscal disaster," Heller writes. She adds, "How can you have 'the greatest nation' on Earth, as the candidates state, and not provide health care for its hard workers?" In addition, Heller writes, "You can tell plenty about how a nation cares for its children, its sick and wounded, its veterans," adding, "The government will bail out bankers but balks at health insurance because it seems 'socialized'" (Heller, Philadelphia Inquirer, 10/14).
  
  
• Theodore Marmor/Jerry Mashaw, Philadelphia Inquirer: "Sad as it is ... it's no accident" that the "news cycle of commentary" about health care reform "is both brief and superficial," Marmor and Mashaw -- Yale University professors of management and law, respectively -- write in an Inquirer opinion piece. According to the authors, "American health policy debates have for some time been dominated by technical fixes, faddish nostrums and gimmicks," and the McCain and Obama health care proposals seek only to "appeal to the ideological fundamentals of their party faithful" (Marmor/Mashaw, Philadelphia Inquirer, 10/13).
  
  
• Ralph Reiland, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "All told, Obama's flawed economic plan" -- which includes a requirement that employers offer health insurance or pay a percentage of their payrolls into a federal fund to provide coverage, with an exemption for small businesses -- is a "direct threat to employers and employees," Reiland, an associate professor of economics at Robert Morris University, writes in a Tribune-Review opinion piece. "For a small business with thin margins that can afford to cover only 10 of its 50 employees, Obama's full-coverage mandate under the 'play' option ... comes with a job-killing price tag," Reiland writes (Reiland, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 10/13).
  
  
• Raleigh News & Observer: "The crisis in health care isn't just about the uninsured anymore," as some U.S. residents with health insurance are "finding expenses ... daunting" and are "cutting back on treatments or not taking medicines that control chronic conditions," a News & Observer editorial states. According to the editorial, the McCain health care proposal "depends on tax credits and the weary free-market chatter about people having the freedom to choose their own health care." The editorial states, "That's disingenuous because McCain would also tax employers' health care benefits, and many people, if set 'free' in the marketplace, wouldn't be able to obtain insurance if they had health problems." The editorial adds that "Obama's plan is better, with more government involvement, but it would be tremendously expensive" (Raleigh News & Observer, 10/11).
  
  
• David Broder, Washington Post: "The good news for Barack Obama is that the calamities in the financial world may have created an insuperable barrier to John McCain's White House ambitions," but Obama "stands to inherit the leadership of a country in far worse condition than he could have imagined when he began this campaign almost two years ago," Post columnist Broder writes. According to Broder, Obama has "reiterated the goals of ... expansion of the health care benefits," among other proposals, but, with "revenue depleted and the costs of Medicaid, welfare and unemployment benefits boosted by the threatened recession, it will take legerdemain to keep those promises" (Broder, Washington Post, 10/12).
  
  
• Armstrong Williams, Washington Times: "No matter what kind of health care program we have, 'universal coverage,'" as proposed by Obama and others, "won't really happen," Times columnist Williams writes. "Universal coverage actually means in practice that the government rations health care," he writes, adding, "Under this system, those who need it most often can't get enough of it, and those who need it least get too much." Williams writes, "This begs the question of whether having marginal health insurance for everyone is worth signing over to the government the right to say who lives and who dies" (Williams, Washington Times, 10/13).

Broadcast Coverage

• CNN's "CNN Newsroom" on Saturday included an analysis of the Obama health care proposal (Levs, "CNN Newsroom," CNN, 10/11). A transcript of the program is available online.
  
  
• NPR's "Morning Edition" on Tuesday examined McCain's proposal to allow people to buy health insurance across state lines (Rovner, "Morning Edition," NPR, 10/14)

Webcasts of the townhall meetings are available online at kaisernetwork.org.

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

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