Analysis finds Obama plan has “greater potential”

Barack Obama’s health plan has “greater potential to move the health care system toward high performance” than John McCain’s proposals, according to a new analysis by the non-partisan Commonwealth Fund, a foundation that studies health issues.

And Jane Bryant Quinn, a financial columnist, says in this Newsweek commentary that McCain’s plan “will raise your costs without changing the game.”

What does the Commonwealth Fund mean by a high-performance health system? One that covers everyone, guarantees adequate benefits, is affordable and simple, allows choice, and improves quality.  

The Commonwealth Fund’s definition of a “high performance” system is similar to the goals for health reform set out by CWA.  You can check out CWA’s analysis of how Obama’s plan and McCain’s plan line up (or don’t) with our goals.

Obama’s proposal, “mixed private-public group insurance with a shared responsibility for financing,” has a better chance of meeting those goals than “McCain’s proposal to encourage individual market coverage through the use of tax incentives and deregulation,” Commonwealth said.

By limiting state regulation of health insurance, the analysis said, McCain’s plan would “effectively remove consumer protections now in place in some states,” and would therefore “reduce access to insurance for older people and those with health problems.” Under Obama’s plan, insurance companies “would be prevented from rejecting applicants or charging higher premiums because of preexisting conditions.”

Quinn said, “Conservatives love health plans that throw more of the costs on you. When it's hard to pay the bills, you see the doctor less. Through the ‘magic of the marketplace,’ that's supposed to slow the rate of increase in medical costs.

“Friends,” Quinn concluded, “there's zero evidence that that works.”