American leaders and healthcare experts met at the Heritage Foundation Tuesday to discuss the endless debate over national healthcare reform, as they looked to which 2008 presidential candidate had the most successful plan to revamp the nation’s economic system altogether.
The latest cost-analysis study conducted by the National Taxpayers Union (NTU) states of both presidential nominees, U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), “despite their different styles, the major party presidential hopefuls have one thing in common: both their agendas would add billions more to the taxpayer’s tab every year.”
The study, covering proposals made by both presidential nominees from January 29 through September 19 revealed that “Senator McCain would increase yearly federal spending by $92.4 billion, compared to Senator Obama’s $293.0 billion.”
“Both the McCain and Obama campaigns have tried to keep pace with the political issues of the day—largely by responding with proposals for new programs and regulations that could reach deeper and deeper into taxpayer’s pockets,” NTU reported. “If eight months on the campaign trail can mean an increase of tens of billions of dollars in yearly outlays, imagine what four—or potentially, eight years in office could bring.” Further, they claimed that “both candidates have talked about reducing wasteful spending, but neither has been specific enough.”
As for healthcare reform, President Grace-Marie Turner of the Galen Institute had a lot to say about the topic. “Health spending in the United States is nearly equally divided between the public and private health sectors. In 2007, U.S. healthcare expenditures totaled more than $2.2 trillion, representing 16 percent of the gross domestic product,” Turner said, as she highlighted key points from a recent publication by the Galen Institute. “Of the total, 45 percent—or more than $1 trillion—was spent through public programs. More than $1.2 trillion or 52 percent was through private spending.
“Americans face a critical choice this election over the direction of our health care system,” Turner said. “Senator Barack Obama proposes more government involvement in the health sector, while Senator John McCain proposes changes that would give people and families more control over health care and health spending decisions.”
According to Turner, “tax revenues provide the largest share of funding for public programs.” Also, she explained that “two taxpayer-supported healthcare programs are dominant in the United States: Medicare and Medicaid.” “The newest government healthcare program is the State Children’s Health Insurance Program that provides healthcare coverage to more than six million children in families whose parents earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but can’t afford private insurance.” Also, she argued that Sen. McCain’s healthcare plan relies on affordability, portability and security, access and choice—compared to Barack’s healthcare plan, which only includes a lot of conjecture and lacks real substance.
Further, Turner argued that the U.S. healthcare system faces four major challenges, which she noted in her recent study titled, “Overview of the U.S. Health Sector.” They are as follows:
1. “Pressures are intense in both private and public sector plans to manage costs.”
2. “The large number of uninsured is not only a problem for these individuals and families without health coverage, but also for society as a whole.”
3. “Demands for new technologies and the latest pharmaceutical treatments are growing and consumers may face bureaucratic and financial barriers to the medical care they want and need for themselves and their families.”
4. “Nurses, physicians, hospitals and other medical providers are burned by significant paperwork and regulatory requirements for both private and public health programs.”
“By relying on market forces, the expensive and demoralizing burden of excessive regulation and paperwork can be lifted,” Turner argued. “The challenge is to create a climate that will provide incentives to promote good health and to embrace the changes that will lead to a wiser use of technologies.”
Concluding, Turner said, “innovation and competition, rather than bureaucracy, can drive change, and the children who are yet to be born will be the beneficiaries of medical miracles we can only imagine today.”
Irene Warren is an intern at the American Journalism Center, a training program run by Accuracy in Media and Accuracy in Academia.
