John McCain Health Care Forum

Sen. John McCain is a presidential candidate who used to be at the forefront of both the presidential polls and of ideas regarding the health care industry.

Not anymore.

McCain in a health care forum this week didn’t discuss any widespread plan on this most volatile campaign issue. Instead, he addressed several key points and stated some facts.

McCain in the forum discussed that the federal Medicaid program will go broke by the year 2019 and how the problem with the health care industry in America is not the quality of care we receive but the cost of that care. McCain, if he becomes president, wants to financially encourage pharmaceutical companies to create safer and cheaper drugs, so the costs of prescriptions will go down. This sounds like a great idea, but it doesn’t address the immediate problem of so many Americans being without health insurance.

McCain’s plan for universal health insurance for all Americans is quite simple and quite lacking: He wants to provide a refundable tax credit or individuals and families who have health insurance. This means that if you purchase health insurance, you will get money back on your taxes.

McCain’s plan for universal health care doesn’t address the true problem of the high cost. Instead he wants to put a band aid on the issue and give Americans a tax break after they’ve already paid the high prices and he wants to give more money to big business in order to encourage them to drop their drug and hospitalization costs down a couple dollars.

John McCain’s plan to reform our country’s health insurance program needs some reform itself. McCain’s campaign has been in shambles for months, and his health insurance plan is one of the reasons.