Other blogs have beaten me to an amazing idea. There are surely people currently reading my post who have not decided who they are going to vote for. I will therefore compare the two candidates policies in different areas. If you want a specific area examined let me know and we will do it.

I thought we would start with health care reform. Here the two candidates have vastly different ideas. I will be taking the policy statements for both candidates straight from there websites. You can find Barack Obama's statements here and John McCain's here. So let us begin.

Sen. Obama's health care policy: the very first bullet point states "Guaranteed eligibility. No American will be turned away from any insurance plan because of illness or pre-existing conditions. " I hope we all understand what he is saying here. He is saying that irregardless of the rules of economics, he will make a government insurance company which will except everyone. I do not know anyone outside of the libertarian party who does not feel a sense of need to make sure that all Americans are insured. Barack Obama is suggesting that a form a discriminatory national healthcare. Everyone pays for it in taxes, but only some get the benefits. Who gets the benefits? The government will decide. How expensive do you think it will be to run a bureaucracy that is supposed to provide healthcare to "46 million" Americans? Where is he going to get that money?

Well how about private insurance companies under Barack Obama? Sen. Obama believes that those Americans who do choose to still go with private insurance companies need not be dismayed. Sen. Obama is going to organize a watchdog group that will review insurance policies to "ensure fairness". Wow! How exactly are you going to pay for that? The last time I checked companies were allowed to make their own policies. If those policies can now only be set by the national government, then are these companies really private? Welcome the end of private health care.

At least one way Sen. Obama has decided to pay for these policies is to make the employers pay for it. That's right all employers will be required to pay for healthcare even if the employees are getting Obama's national healthcare plan. So if you are an employer you will be taxed heavily as an individual and then receive greater taxes on your business. There are more specifics that you kind find at the link provided, but these are the main highlights.

So what is John McCain's plan?

John McCain's plan makes it obvious that he will be focussing on making the private insurance plans work for Americans, instead of a national healthcare plan. His platform recognizes that currently there are problems with coverage and costs. To make health insurance more affordable he will reform the tax code to give higher tax credits for people who are insured. He will also seek for portability. Currently health insurance companies are limited to the scope they can cover individual by geographic boundaries. In other words, you cannot keep an insurance policy form Massachusetts if you move to Wyoming. John McCain wants to stop this. He also wants to make it more possible to leave a company, but maintain your insurance.

He also has a proposal for insuring individuals who cannot afford it because of the expensive diseases they have. John McCain is suggesting a guaranteed access plan through nonprofit organizations. Here I have to interject my personal opinion. I have been advocating this very system for years. Why not allow a individuals to contribute money in the form of a tax deductible charitable donation to nonprofit organizations who then use the contributions to liaison with insurance companies and therefore provide insurance through subsidized premiums and deductibles? No government oversight needed. No wasteful policies, no politics in the decisions. Beautiful idea.


At the end of the day, I believe that McCain wins out big in this area. His plan is feasible and easily established.