They Just Don't Get It

Sen. John McCain rolled out his health care plan today, and said:

Right now, too many of our citizens don't have an insurance policy at all, and those who do are afraid they will lose the one they have - afraid they will get too sick, afraid to stay home and not work full-time, and afraid their benefits will disappear along with their job.

I believe that everyone should get a tax credit of $2,500, $5,000 for families.

Let's look again at the brave yet struggling Frost family of six.

Their combined income, before taxes, is $45,000. Mrs. Frost recently priced private insurance at $14,400 a year. And they can't even get a private company to accept them because of pre-existing medical conditions.

Is a $5,000 tax credit going to guarantee they can afford and access health insurance? Of course not.

Sure, McCain paid some lip service to reducing the cost of health care, but he didn't propose much specific besides "greater competition" and caps on malpractice lawsuits (which only amount to 2% of all health care spending). The only significant reform he offered was reiterating his support for importing cheaper prescription drugs.

This is very much in line with what Joe Paduda wrote last month:

The GOP programs are not 'reform'. There is no evidence that these tax breaks will significantly improve the number of people with coverage, the quality of the care they get, or reduce the cost of insurance or medical care. None. Zippo. Nada. The GOP platforms are actually tax breaks, marketed as health care reform.

That's fine, but rather disingenuous.

It's also detached from reality.

Conservatives attack working families like the Frosts, then offer proposals that show they have no understanding of their struggles.

They simply don't get what's going on in America.

And if they choose to sustain Bush's veto of SCHIP, that will make their cluelessness and callousness even clearer to American voters.

Views expressed on this page are those of the authors and not necessarily those of Campaign for America's Future or Institute for America's Future