John McCain: Too dangerous to trust with your healthcare

Throughout his career, Sen. John McCain has consistently opposed overarching supervision of financial institutions, and now he wants to deregulate the health insurance industry in the same way conservatives dismantled prudent supervision of Wall Street. To quote him, “opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation."

Senator McCain’s plan would:

• Threaten the coverage of over 160 million people in the United States who receive health benefits through work. The Economic Policy Institute projects 11-27 million Americans could lose their coverage. In sheer numbers, the biggest impact comes in the states with the most population. In California, some 2.4 million people can be expected to lose employer coverage, followed by New York with losses estimated at 1.6 million, and Ohio and Texas at 0.9 million. The greatest percentage of losses in coverage would occur in a mix of large and small states, with the greatest losses of 16.4 percent of employer coverage in the District of Columbia followed by 15.5% in New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont, and by 15.4 percent in Connecticut. Sixteen states would see losses of at least 13 percent (The above list plus OR, MA, KS, MD, ME, OH, NJ, MT, and OK.)
• Eliminate the employer health care tax benefits that enable many businesses, especially small businesses, to provide group insurance to their employees.
• Put at special risk coverage for the 56 million non-elderly people across the country struggling with diseases like cancer and diabetes who are now covered through their jobs. Insurance companies would be free to “cherry pick” only those individuals for coverage who do not have costly health conditions and avoid state regulations that keep health care accessible and affordable.
• Raise taxes on the health insurance benefits paid by millions of American families. A typical family could pay over $1,100 more in taxes by 2013 if McCain imposes both income and payroll taxes on their health coverage.

Additionally McCain’s plan directly threatens the health of women who make up 14 percent of the uninsured in the United States. The results of a new report from Planned Parenthood and the Center for American Progress show that McCain’s health care solutions would threaten women’s health and lives. According to the report, McCain’s plan would gut state requirements aimed specifically at protecting women’s access to some of their most basic health needs. In Wisconsin, state statute requires that insurers provide coverage of basic health care services such as mammograms, drugs for treatment of HIV infection and maternity leave. McCain’s plan jeopardizes coverage of these services and devastatingly:

• eliminates coverage of cervical cancer and HPV screening
• eliminates coverage of the HPV vaccine
• eliminates comprehensive drug benefit plans that include contraceptives
• eliminates coverage of breast reconstruction

Our health care system faces deep problems. There are 46 million people without insurance and nearly as many who have insurance for only part of the year, costs are rising and increasingly unaffordable and quality of care is inconsistent. But Sen. McCain’s prescription would worsen the disease, creating a deregulated insurance market, leaving millions of Americans with serious illnesses without insurance coverage and millions more paying higher taxes for their insurance coverage.

John McCain:

Too dangerous to trust with your healthcare

Election Day is in just 34 days