Can You Afford McCain's Health Care Plan?

With the nation's attention focused on the economy (the feds bailed out AIG), it's interesting to note a column by Bob Herbert of the New York Times. He talks about the McCain-Palin agenda for health care, specifically health insurance. To say the plan is an eye opener is an understatement. Herbert says, correctly, that with the focus on lipstick and who invented the BlackBerry, The Republican candidates' proposals haven't gotten much attention. Hopefully, that may change.

What jumps out about the McCain-Palin plan is the fact it would treat employer-paid health benefits as income. That means workers would have to pay taxes on it. That of course means your employer will have to withhold a bit more from your paycheck to cover the estimated tax. Now for McCain, who paints himself as a tax cutter, to propose taxing healthcare is radical by itself. McCain proposes to make up part of the tax by offering all taxpayers a refundable tax credit of between $2500 and $5000.

The question then becomes this. If you're going to offer a credit, why tax the benefits as income in the first place? Oh yeah, the agenda, which is to eventually relieve employers of the pesky responsibility of helping to pay for workers' healthcare. It would put more and more Americans in the private health insurance marketplace. That means, left to their own devices, workers will opt for the cheapest possible plan, or opt out of the health care system entirely.

A new study of the McCain plan projects that 20 million Americans will lose employer based health insurance if McCain and Palin get their way. In other words, this is the very kind of deregulation that has helped cause the current mess in the financial markets. Do you want that kind of chaos facing you if you or a member of your family gets sick?

John McCain and Sarah Palin think government regulation is part of what's wrong with America. They may try to dress it up a bit due to present circumstances on Wall St., but as they mouth their platitudes, ask yourself this.

Can you afford the McCain-Palin health care plan?