Barack Care Versus John Care: Health Care Under the Next President

by: Dean Baker, t r u t h o u t | Perspective

There is a sharp difference between Barack Obama and John McCain on health care.

    By far the most important domestic policy issue facing the next president will be fixing the health care system. The United States stands out among wealthy countries in not guaranteeing health insurance to its citizens

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    Yet, even though many people cannot get access to care, we still pay more than twice as much per person as the average in other wealthy countries. And we have the worst outcomes. Only a severely over-medicated politician would claim we have the best health care system in the world.

    As bad as the current system is, it keeps getting worse. The number of people who are uninsured year round is at 47 million and rising. The costs also keep rising. Companies are increasingly dropping insurance for their workers, or forcing workers to pick up a larger share of the bill. The explosion of health care costs is the basis for all the scare stories that budget hawks use to cut "entitlements." Since half of the country's health care costs are paid by the government, if we don't fix the health care system, it will eventually destroy the economy - and also lead to very scary budget deficits

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    So, what do the candidates offer? Following in the Republican tradition of referring to health care plans by the first name of their principle backer, let's see what the candidates propose.

http://www.truthout.org/article/barack-care-versus-john-care

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