The Obama campaign released an attack ad against McCain today entitled COIN.
On health care there are two sides. Barack Obama will require insurance companies to cover routine treatments like vaccines and mammograms. John McCain would deregulate insurance giants letting them bypass patient protections in your state. Obama would force insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions. McCain would continue to let them do as they please. Isn’t your health care too important to be left to chance?
Unfortunately the Obama campaign has again resorted to outright lies. They tried it once before and FactCheck.org called them on it:
The ad relies on a single phrase from a journal article under McCain’s byline, in which he said he would reduce regulation of health insurance “as we have done over the last decade in banking.” But the full context reveals that McCain was referring narrowly to his proposal to allow people to purchase health insurance across state lines.
And noted the other instance where the Obama campaign took what McCain said out of context:
This ad reminds us of another by the Democratic National Committee that took McCain’s comments out of context. That ad charged that McCain wanted to stay in Iraq for 100 years, but his full remarks showed that he was talking about a peaceful presence in the country, much like U.S. troops’ presence in Japan or South Korea, two examples McCain used in his remarks. McCain said staying in Iraq for a hundred years “would be fine with me, as long as Americans, as long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed.” The DNC left that part of the quote out of the ad.
Same ole Obama.
But what we do know about Obama’s plan is that it mandates employers to either pay or be taxed to pay for his socialized dreams. Cost? some 179 billion a year. With the small businesses taxed too much already in this country which option do you think they will be forced to make? Yup….move them into the socialized government plan.
From the McCain campaigns response to the ad:
A Lewin Group study which examined a similar employer mandate combined with a national plan, like the Obama plan, concluded that almost 52 million individuals would lose their private employer coverage. To maintain their competitive edge, others employers will follow – spelling the demise of the employer coverage system.
Some more from the McCain campaign:
Barack Obama’s Plan Will Damage Private Coverage: The government-run plan will have a clear advantage over private insurance since it will be subsidized by American taxpayers. A recent analysis of both plans by the nonpartisan CATO Institute concluded that the Obama government-run plan will be able to “keep its premiums artificially low…since it can turn to the U.S. Treasury to cover any shortfalls” resulting in “undercutting the private market.”5 According to The Wall Street Journal, the goal of the Obama plan “…like HillaryCare in the 1990s, is to displace current private coverage and switch people to the default government option.”
Barack Obama’s Plan Will Not Solve The Problem Of The Uninsured: Despite a staggering cost, Barack Obama’s health care plan will only cover a little more than half of the 47 million uninsured. Under the plan, 22.5 million people will remain uninsured while millions will face huge tax increases.
Barack Obama’s Plan Will Not Solve The Problem Of Cost: The Obama plan would cause a significant shift in the current health care plans that most families now enjoy. It would force more than 82 million Americans into plans that would cost more money then the plan they currently have, as “[h]igh option PPOs as well as the national public plan would become the dominant health plan offerings.” So premiums will go up, not down.
Barack Obama Will Impose Higher Taxes On Employers: The Obama “play-or-pay” mandate alone would cost $179 billion per year. These costs will limit job and wage growth at a time when the government should be encouraging job creation rather than squeezing employers with additional costs. Furthermore, the cost of the Obama employer mandate would result in an annual tax of $2,000 per worker for employers not offering coverage. Even with a vaguely mentioned Obama small business tax credit, the impact on job creation in our current economy would be devastating.
McCain proposes a tax credit that can be used to purchase insurance of their choice, including from a company in another State. Imagine that, choice…..something we don’t get from an Obama plan. Oh sure, he says employers have the choice of paying the amount he sets or getting taxed, but we all know what that will mean. Everyone gets moved to the socialized plan.
Of course in the VP debate Biden had to mis-characterize the plan:
BIDEN: Now, with regard to the — to the health care plan, you know, it’s with one hand you giveth, the other you take it. You know how Barack Obama — excuse me, do you know how John McCain pays for his $5,000 tax credit you’re going to get, a family will get?
He taxes as income every one of you out there, every one of you listening who has a health care plan through your employer. That’s how he raises $3.6 trillion, on your — taxing your health care benefit to give you a $5,000 plan, which his Web site points out will go straight to the insurance company.
And then you’re going to have to replace a $12,000 — that’s the average cost of the plan you get through your employer — it costs $12,000. You’re going to have to pay — replace a $12,000 plan, because 20 million of you are going to be dropped. Twenty million of you will be dropped.
So you’re going to have to place — replace a $12,000 plan with a $5,000 check you just give to the insurance company. I call that the “Ultimate Bridge to Nowhere.”
Kinda funny how he thinks a tax credit that is meant to pay for health insurance actually going to insurance companies is bad.
As for the rest:
McCain has proposed to end one of the largest tax breaks in the entire economy. Some 60 million Americans buy health insurance thru employers tax-free, and McCain would indeed begin to tax the value of the benefit.
However McCain also proposes to give the money back as a tax credit, $2,500 for individuals, $5,000 for families.
“Let’s give them a $5,000 refundable tax credit to go out and get the health insurance of their choice,” McCain said.
“It’s mostly a tax break,” said Len Burman of the Tax Policy Center.
The non-partisan tax policy center says except for the very richest Americans, most people buying insurance will see a tax cut.
“Families at all income levels would pay lower taxes, at least on average,” said Burman. “On average, is about a $1,200 tax cut in 2009.”
Under McCain’s plan employer coverage gets stronger instead of weaker with the Obama plan. The employer still get to deduct the cost of the insurance.
Millions of American families with employer sponsored coverage in all tax brackets with the same coverage as a “Members of Congress” will now come out ahead with additional funds going into a portable health savings account. Importantly, younger and healthier employees with the McCain health care tax credit will have a bigger incentive to stay with the employers. For example, a 25-year-old employee in the 25 percent tax bracket with a $2,500 tax credit could either purchase a policy in the individual market for the same amount or stay with his employer plan and receive a $5,000 policy with an additional $1,250 to invest in a portable health savings account. Why would people choose worse insurance and less money?
Obama wants our health care to become a socialist program. Redistribute the wealth to those who don’t have it so we all are even. We’ve seen how horrible the health care system is in Canada and Europe so why not follow in their footsteps?
Sigh….
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