Sunday, December 16, 2007

While Hillary is a bold leader; Obama is cautious and wrong on health care plan

In politics you expect that people who take time to write slogans and themes for their political campaign would perhaps take a moment and see if the facts are consistent with the message. Barack Obama who has offered that he is not afraid of what the Republicans will say about his plans, therefore offers bold visionary change. Also, since he is not tied to the past failings and squabbles, Obama is free to offer a new vision and policy approach. Fair enough. Let's look at healthcare, which is always ranked as one of the top issues in the country.

Hillary offers a Universal Health choices plan that mandates that ALL Americans have health care plans. She is smart to include choice for Americans who may want to stay with their current provider. The best plans in America should always include private sector choice (hint,hint about education). The rest of her plan is very similar to Obama, Edwards and all democrats where they ensure private plans don't deny coverage for pre-existing illnesses, focus on prevention etc.

Yet, Obama's plan has a different feature. The candidate that can deliver a positive change, has a plan that doesn't deliver:

Obama would mandate all children have coverage, but not all Americans


The reason this is a crucial item to focus on is that if you mandate companies to accept anyone seeking coverage, but you don't mandate that individuals seek coverage, then guess what:

Many healthy people will make a logical choice to wait until they are sick before seeking coverage!

This system couldn't possibly work. It would force those who were responsible about their family's health to pay more because the company or plan they were enrolled with had to absorb the cost of sicker people on their books.

Think about it? Why would many young people or others who are cash strapped pay for health insurance they rarely/if ever used, if they knew that once they needed it they could sign up for it, and they couldn't be denied because of a pre-existing condition? A good analogy would be with automobile insurance. Imagine how many people would not buy it if they knew they could get it once they needed it?

The Obama plan shows a lack of experience dealing in public policy, and also an attempt to appear "moderate" by not "forcing" people to get health insurance.

Hillary has a great mix of government mandates, personal freedom, and cost cutting features in her plan.

This episode proves Hillary is ready to lead from day 1.

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