Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media

Sen. John McCain made remarks on health care reform earlier today in Florida, and a news conference was held this afternoon to analyze and critique the plan with participants Roger Hickey, co-director of Campaign for America’s Future, Jacob Hacker, author and professor at Yale University, and Karen Ackerman, political director for AFL-CIO.

Hickey said the ideas McCain put forward today would disrupt the health care system, dismantle the employer provided system, and force millions of people who currently get decent health care to have to try to find health care on their own. He said McCain’s plan to tax health care premiums will stop companies from providing health care employee benefits, so that instead individuals must buy insurance on their own. He also said McCain’s reform will abolish regulations that currently exist in some states to hold insurance companies to a standard, so people can instead buy insurance from any program regardless of what state they live in. He said this plan will benefit the insurance industry, but will not address the cost spiral that is afflicting health care in America, nor will it decrease the number of uninsured Americans.

Hacker said he feels Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama have proposed good health care plans, but that McCain’s proposal is inadequate to address the interwoven problems of rising health care costs and declining coverage. He said the real problem for most Americans is the risk of losing coverage, or not being able to get coverage if they are unhealthy, and that McCain’s reform does nothing to address these problems. He also said the plan threatens to shift costs from companies and payrolls to American families and individuals, and that the tax credit number is going to be very small.

Ackerman also emphasized that McCain’s health care “scheme” will push people out of employer provided insurance to deal with insurance alone, will make it harder for people with pre-existing health conditions to find insurance. She said the grassroots efforts of AFL-CIO will try to make sure voters across the country know that insurance companies and lobbyists for the insurance companies stand to benefit from McCain’s plan, while hurting working families already struggling to stay afloat.