In a new poll released by Harris Interactive and researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health, four in ten registered voters said they didn't think that one health reform plan would be better than the other.http://biz.yahoo.com/...
An amazing finding, given that the differences between Obama's and McCain's health reform plans could not be starker. In fact, on health reform, these two candidates are as far apart as they can be. McCain relies almost totally on the market and changes to the tax code to fix problems and Obama supports maintenance of the employer based system and a stronger role for regulation of the insurance industry.
There are so many bad ideas in the McCain plan and so little time to explain them all to people. The Democrats are smart to focus on the "McCain will tax your health benefits" part, but there are other ideas that even business associations like the American Benefits Council oppose -- the repeal of the employee tax exclusion is strongly opposed by business.
In a survey conducted by the American Benefits Council and cited in the article above (please note that 46% of the respondents to this survey said they were Republican while only 25% were Democratic),
If workers would be taxed on the cost of health insurance above a certain threshold, 32% of companies said they'd reduce the level of coverage available either immediately or gradually, while 59% would offer a new plan option with less-generous benefits.
Combined with McCain's idea of loosening restrictions on state insurance regulation, employees would be thrown into the cold cold world of individual insurance, searching for a plan on their own, being denied because they went to the doctor for strep throat once, finding that McCain's tax credit covered less than the hospital gown they were forced to wear.
There is opposition from business to Obama's idea of making employers provide insurance or pay into a fund (called pay or play), but where is the opposition coming from? I would be willing to bet not from the CEO or the CFO. Many of them have been looking for ways to get rid of this obligation for years. The American Benefits Council's survey doesn't say who they interviewed, but this opposition is most likely coming from the HR people whose jobs might be cut as a result of either plan being implemented. During the Clinton health reform effort, the loudest opposition to reform came from benefits staff in large corporations and benefits consultants (I know I because I used to be one of them!). However, the opposition is usually portrayed as coming from business in general.
Even if Obama wins, there will be push back to the pay or play idea, the mandate on children, the public plan, the regulation of insurance. However, this time around there will be a strong Democratic Congress to back Obama up. Clinton had a Republican-controlled Congress and splits within his own Party.
With less than 30 days left, those of us who support the health reform plan of Obama must make the differences between these two plans crystal clear to the voters.
article above