| Medical Insurance Issues |
* Barack Obama - D
 |
Ralph Nader - I
 |
Chuck Baldwin - CON
 |
| Health Insurance, a General Statement |
Obama: Obama will create a National Health Insurance Exchange to help individuals who wish to purchase private insurance. The Exchange will act as a watchdog group and help reform the private insurance market by creating rules and standards for participating insurance plans to ensure fairness and to make individual coverage more affordable and accessible. Insurers would have to issue every applicant a policy, and charge fair and stable premiums. The Exchange will require benefits comparable to those offered in the new public plan. Insurers would be required to justify an above-average premium increase. The Exchange would evaluate plans and provide information about differences between them. The Obama plan both builds upon and improves our current insurance system, upon which most Americans continue to rely, and leaves Medicare intact for older and disabled Americans. The benefit package will be similar to the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), and cover all essential medical services, including preventive, maternity and mental health care. Barack Obama believes health care is a right for everyone, not a privilege for the few, Throughout his legislative career, he has made affordable health care a priority -- he delivered coverage to an additional 20,000 children and 65,000 parents in Illinois and sponsored a bill to protect the uninsured from price gouging. In Washington, Obama will continue to champion affordable health care on the national level. He has proposed a detailed health plan that covers every child in America, allows those near retirement to buy into Medicare, and ensures coverage for those losing jobs through no fault of their own. The insurance business today is dominated by a small group of large companies that has been gobbling up their rivals. Obama will prevent companies from abusing their monopoly power through unjustified price increases and force insurers to spend more funds on patient care instead of keeping exorbitant amounts for prof [Response was truncated to maximum response length of 2000 characters.]
Source: www.barackobama.com Date: 12/10/2007 |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Universal Medical Care / Insurance |
Obama: We're ready to play offense for universal health care. I'm tired of seeing unions go to the bargaining table and fight for the benefits they negotiated a long time ago, instead of fighting for better wages to support their families. I reformed health care in Illinois. And I did it by reaching out to Democrats and Republicans. We took on the insurance industry, and we won. And that's what I'll do as President. I've got a plan that cuts costs for the typical family by up to $2,500 a year - more than any other plan that's been offered in this race. And I make this solemn pledge to you - I'll sign my universal health care plan into law by the end of my first term.
Source: www.barackobama.com/2007/11/13/obama_asks_united_auto_workers.php Date: 11/13/2007 |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Medically Uninsured or Underinsured |
Obama: I'm in this race because I want to stop talking about the outrage of 47 million Americans without health care and start actually doing something about it. I expanded health care in Illinois by bringing Democrats and Republicans together. By taking on the insurance industry. And I have put forth a universal health care plan that will do more to cut the cost of health care than any other proposal in this race. Here's the truth - if you can't afford health insurance right now, you will when I'm President. Anyone who tells you otherwise is more interested in scoring points than solving problems. And I'm in it because we've had enough of that.
Source: www.barackobama.com/2007/11/30/in_remarks_at_dnc_fall_meeting.php Date: 11/30/2007 |
Nader: The Nader campaign's single-payer health-care plan will provide insurance for all Americans.
Source: Candidate Website Date: 10/04/2008 |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Employers' Medical Insurance |
Obama: An increasing number of employers are offering worksite health promotion programs and many employers choose insurance plans that cover preventive services for their employees. Obama believes that worksite interventions hold tremendous potential to influence health and will expand and reward these efforts. Employers that do not offer or make a meaningful contribution to the cost of quality health coverage for their employees will be required to contribute a percentage of payroll toward the costs of the national plan. Small employers that meet certain revenue thresholds will be exempt.
Source: www.barackobama.com Date: 12/08/2007 |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Employers vs Employees As Chief Health Care Buyer |
Obama: Employers that do not offer or make a meaningful contribution to the cost of quality health coverage for their employees will be required to contribute a percentage of payroll toward the costs of the national plan. Small employers that meet certain revenue thresholds will be exempt.
Source: http://www.barackobama.com/issues/healthcare/ Date: 09/30/2007 |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Coverage of Children |
Obama: Obama will require that all children have health care coverage. Obama will expand the number of options for young adults to get coverage, including by allowing young people up to age 25 to continue coverage through their parents' plans.
Source: www.barackobama.com Date: 12/08/2007 |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) |
Obama: Four million American children were denied basic health coverage today because Washington politicians failed to stand up to this President's disgraceful veto. At a time when we're spending billions of dollars on a war that never should've been authorized and giving billions in tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans, Washington's failure shows a callousness of priorities that is offensive to the ideals we hold as Americans.
When I am President, I will sign a universal health care bill into law by the end of my first term that will cover every American and cut costs more dramatically than any other plan offered by a candidate in this race. And I'll do it by bringing Republicans and Democrats together, like I did when I expanded health care for an additional 150,000 children and their parents as an Illinois state Senator.
Source: www.barackobama.com/2007/10/18/obama_statement_on_schip_vote.php Date: 10/18/2007 |
Nader: Under the Nader plan, this plan would be folded into the single-payer program.
Source: Candidate Website Date: 10/04/2008 |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Free Market Health Care |
Obama: Given the money we spend on health care, we should be able to provide basic coverage to everyone. But we have to contain costs, including Medicare and Medicaid. The market alone cannot solve the problem--in part because the market has proven incapable of creating large enough insurance pools to keep costs to individuals affordable. Overall, 20% of all patients account for 80% of the care, and if we can prevent disease or manage their effects, we can dramatically improve outcomes and save money.
Source: The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama, p.183-185 Date: 10/01/2006 |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Health Insurance Purchase Choices |
Obama: In May, Obama announced a plan to provide health care for all by 2012. Obama's plan, according to Newsday, would work within the existing private insurance system but would provide subsidies to help insurance purchasers on a sliding scale.
Source: http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/sns-ap-obama-health,0,191376.story? Date: 06/01/2007 |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Portable Medical Insurance |
Obama: Participants in the new public plan and the National Health Insurance Exchange (see below) will be able to move from job to job without changing their health care coverage.
Source: www.barackobama.com Date: 12/07/2007 |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| State Plans |
Obama: Obama's plan allows states to continue innovating on health care reform. Due to federal inaction, some states have taken the lead in health care reform. The obama plan builds on these efforts and does not replace what states are doing. States can continue to experiment, provided they meet the minimum standards of the national plan. The federal government and state and local governments play critical roles in disease prevention and health promotion activities. First, working together, governments at all levels should develop a national and regional strategy for public health that includes funding mechanisms for implementation. Second, the field of public health would benefit from greater research to optimize organization of the 3,000 health departments in this nation, collaborative arrangements between levels of government and its private partners, performance and accountability indicators, integrated and interoperable communication networks, and disaster preparedness and response. Third, the government must invest in workforce recruitment as well as modernizing our physical structures. And finally, the government must examine its own policies, including agricultural, educational, environmental and health policies, to assess and improve their effect on public health in this nation.
Source: www.barackobama.com Date: 12/08/2007 |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) |
Obama: No Response |
Nader: Again, the Nader plan would make these unnecessary.
Source: Candidate Website Date: 10/04/2008 |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Market-Based Medical Insurance |
Obama: Obama's plan will provide affordable, comprehensive and portable health coverage for all Americans by: Making available a National Health Insurance Exchange to help individuals purchase private coverage and to reform the private insurance market. Any American could enroll in participating private plans, which would have to provide comprehensive benefits, issue every applicant a policy, and charge fair and stable premiums.
Source: Campaign website, BarackObama.com, "Resource Flyers" Date: 08/26/2007 |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Medical Insurance Block Grants |
Obama: No Response |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Medicare |
Obama: Protect and Strengthen Medicare. Some 42 million seniors are served by Medicare. Ensuring the long-term solvency of the Medicare trust fund may be our toughest fiscal challenge, but Barack Obama is committed to the long-term strength of the Medicare program. Ultimately we need to reduce waste in the Medicare system and tackle fundamental health care reform across the economy. We need to improve the quality and efficiency of our healthcare system and put a greater emphasis on prevention.
Source: www.barackobama.com Date: 12/08/2007 |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Medicaid |
Obama: Medicaid helps 6 million seniors with their health care costs. Obama supports efforts to ensure that this program remains solvent. He believes that the federal government should support state-level reform efforts to constrain Medicaid costs such as negotiating for low drug prices, implementing disease management and quality initiatives, and offering greater support for community-based, long-term care services. Obama will also reverse cuts in benefits or changes in eligibility that prevent low-income patients from seeking care until their medical problems have gotten worse and more expensive to treat.
Source: www.barackobama.com Date: 12/08/2007 |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| TRICARE Health Insurance |
Obama: No Response |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Medical Insurance Discrimination |
Obama: Obama will tackle the root causes of health disparities by addressing differences in access to health coverage and promoting prevention and public health, both of which play a major role in addressing disparities. He will also challenge the medical system to eliminate inequities in health care through quality measurement and reporting, implementation of effective interventions such as patient navigation programs, and diversification of the health workforce.
Source: www.barackobama.com Date: 12/08/2007 |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Misuse of Health Records |
Obama: Obama will also work to provide robust protection against misuses of particularly sensitive kinds of information, such as e-health records and location data that do not fit comfortably within sector-specific privacy laws.
Source: www.barackobama.com Date: 12/08/2007 |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Medicare Reimbursement Formulas |
Obama: No Response |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Uniform Billing and Claims |
Obama: No Response |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Paperless Claims |
Obama: No Response |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Federal Employee Health Benefit Plan (FEHBP) Buy-In |
Obama: No Response |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Federal Reinsurance Medical Pool |
Obama: I emphasize how important prevention & cost savings can be in the Medicare system. Many of the reforms in my healthcare plan will reduce costs not just for the overall system, but also for Medicare. We're not going to make some of these changes unless we change how business is done in Washington. The reason we can't negotiate prescription drugs under the Medicare prescription drug plan is because the drug companies specifically sought and obtained a provision in the Bill that prevented us from doing it.
Source: 2007 Des Moines Register Democratic Debate Date: 12/13/2007 |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Chronic & Catastrophic Illnesses |
Obama: The nation faces epidemics of chronic diseases. Catastrophic health expenditures account for a high percentage of medical expenses for private insurers. The Obama plan would reimburse employer health plans for a portion of the catastrophic costs they incur above a threshold if they guarantee such savings are used to reduce the cost of workers' premiums.
Source: www.barackobama.com Date: 12/07/2007 |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) |
Obama: No Response |
Nader: They should be eliminated and replaced with a single-payer health-care plan.
Source: Candidate Website Date: 10/04/2008 |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Medical Malpractice Reform |
Obama: Reform medical malpractice. Obama will strengthen antitrust laws to prevent insurers from overcharging physicians for their malpractice insurance, and will promote new models for addressing physician errors that improve patient safety, strengthen the doctor-patient relationship, and reduce the need for malpractice suits.
Source: www.barackobama.com Date: 12/07/2007 |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Medical Malpractice Lawsuit Limitations |
Obama: No Response |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Business Tax Credits for Employee Health Coverage |
Obama: No Response |
Nader: The Nader campaign's plan would make this unnecessary, replacing the current employer contribution to health-care costs with a payroll tax to fund the single-payer plan. This tax would be lower than the current expenditure on health care for most businesses.
Source: Candidate Website Date: 10/04/2008 |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Tax Credit / Deductible for Medical Insurance |
Obama: No Response |
Nader: No Response |
Baldwin: No Response |
| Medical Insurance Issues |
Bob Barr - L
 |
John Mccain - R
 |
| Health Insurance, a General Statement |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: Several principles must guide our health care debate:
Put patients and doctors in charge of their own health care, not HMO bureaucrats
Improve access to affordable health care
Choice of doctors to meet health care needs
Guaranteed access to emergency care
Continuity of care when employers change
Doctors must be able to communicate openly and fully with their patients
A free and fair grievance process in the event an HMO denies medical care, including relief in the courts.
Source: Senate statement: “Health Care Reform” Date: 07/15/1999 |
| Universal Medical Care / Insurance |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: First of all, I think it is important that that will be one of the defining issues of this campaign, because we know that there will be Hillary-care resurrected. There will be efforts to raise your taxes. There will be efforts to have a single-payer big government solution by the Democrats. They've already espoused those causes. If you believe them, please take a trip to Canada or England before you decide to support such a thing.
America has the highest quality health care in the world. Our job is to preserve it. Our job is to keep the costs down. Last year, the Medicaid inflation was 10 percent. No, no program in the world can survive under that. So of course we want to remove the employer (OOTC:EPLI) tax, and tax incentives, and move it to the individual. Give the individual a $2,500 refundable tax credit, a family a $5,000 tax credit.
If you need to have people in special categories such as congenital diseases, we may have to set up a fund to care for those. But the key is, make health care in America affordable and available. Don't destroy it, as the Democrats want to do.
Source: Republican Presidential Debate, Orlando, Florida, hosted by FOX News Date: 10/21/2007 |
| Medically Uninsured or Underinsured |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: It is simply disgraceful that 43 million Americans can not afford health care coverage. We must expand medical savings accounts, offer flexible savings accounts, provide full tax deductibility for self-employed health insurance costs, and allow tax deductibility for long-term care expenses. We should provide more funding for our nation’s community health centers, which have instituted a sliding fee schedule which allows people to contribute what they can afford and still receive health benefits.
Source: Senate statement: “Health Care Reform” Date: 07/15/1999 |
| Employers' Medical Insurance |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: McCain adopted the Republican Main Street Partnership agenda item: H.R. 1181 the Health Insurance Affordability and Equity Act With 40 million Americans currently living without health insurance, Republican Main Street Partnership members have been leading the effort to find new and innovative ways to secure health care for our citizens. Easing the burden on businesses entering into insurance purchasing pools, and expanding the use of medical savings accounts (MSAs) have been included in previous economic stimulus packages.
Source: Republican Main Street Partnership Legislative Agenda 02-RMSP4 Date: 05/24/2002 |
| Employers vs Employees As Chief Health Care Buyer |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: Reform the tax code to eliminate the bias toward employer-sponsored health insurance, and provide all individuals with a $2,500 tax credit ($5,000 for families) to increase incentives for insurance coverage. Individuals owning innovative multi-year policies that cost less than the full credit can deposit remainder in expanded health savings accounts.
Source: www.johnmccain.com Date: 12/05/2007 |
| Coverage of Children |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: [We have] 11 million children without health insurance. We’ve got to expand the children’s health insurance program. And I’ll tell you what: I have the guts to take the money where it shouldn’t be spent in Washington and put it where it should be spent, including 10 percent of the surplus.
Source: Des Moines Iowa GOP Debate Date: 12/13/1999 |
| State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: Voted NO on the State Children's Health Insurance Program. HR 976: A bill to amend title XXI of the Social Security Act to reauthorize the State Children's Health Insurance Program.
Source: www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-976 Date: 08/02/2007 |
| Free Market Health Care |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: Families should be in charge of their health care dollars and have more control over their care. We can improve health and spend less, while promoting competition on the cost and quality of care, taking better care of our citizens with chronic illness, and promoting prevention that will keep millions of others from ever developing deadly and debilitating disease.
Source: www.johnmccain.com Date: 12/05/2007 |
| Health Insurance Purchase Choices |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: Families should be able to purchase health insurance nationwide, across state lines, to maximize their choices, and heighten competition for their business that will eliminate excess overhead, administrative, and excessive compensation costs from the system.
Source: www.johnmccain.com Date: 12/05/2007 |
| Portable Medical Insurance |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: Insurance should be innovative, moving from job to home, job to job, and providing multi-year coverage.
Source: www.johnmccain.com Date: 12/05/2007 |
| State Plans |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: I propose that we try a time-honored approach and let the states work on whatever method they find most promising. The federal government can help fund this effort, but in exchange, states should allow Medicaid and SCHIP funds to be used for private insurance and develop methods to augment Medicaid and tax credits for more expensive care.
Source: www.johnmccain.com/Informing/News/Speeches/8f5febd6-cdca-4136-b0d8-a97f5287235d.htm Date: 10/11/2007 |
| Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: There's a choice of having outcome-based treatment. If someone has diabetes, we should give the health care provider a certain amount of money and say, "Care for that patient. If at the end of that period that patient is well, we'll give you a reward." We need walk-in clinics, community health care, and incentives for home health care. In Arizona, we adopted a proposal which incentivizes health care providers to keep people in home health care settings--dramatically less expensive than long-term care.
Source: 2008 Facebook/WMUR-NH Republican primary debate Date: 01/05/2006 |
| Market-Based Medical Insurance |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: Allow individuals to get insurance through any organization or association that they choose: employers, individual purchases, churches, professional association, and so forth. These policies will be available to small businesses and the self-employed, will be portable across all jobs, and will automatically bridge the time between retirement and Medicare eligibility. These plans would have to meet rigorous standards and certification.
Source: www.johnmccain.com Date: 12/05/2007 |
| Medical Insurance Block Grants |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: No Response |
| Medicare |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: Reform the payment systems in Medicare to compensate providers for diagnosis, prevention, and care coordination. Medicare should not pay for preventable medical errors or mismanagement.
Require any state receiving Medicaid to develop a financial "risk adjustment" bonus to high-cost and low-income families to supplement tax credits and Medicaid funds.
Source: www.johnmccain.com Date: 12/05/2007 |
| Medicaid |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: Give states the flexibility to, and encourage them to experiment with: alternative forms of access; risk-adjusted payments per episode covered under Medicaid; use of private insurance in Medicaid; alternative insurance policies and insurance providers; and, different licensing schemes for medical providers.
Source: www.johnmccain.com Date: 12/05/2007 |
| TRICARE Health Insurance |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: No Response |
| Medical Insurance Discrimination |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: No Response |
| Misuse of Health Records |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: No Response |
| Medicare Reimbursement Formulas |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: No Response |
| Uniform Billing and Claims |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: No Response |
| Paperless Claims |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: No Response |
| Federal Employee Health Benefit Plan (FEHBP) Buy-In |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: No Response |
| Federal Reinsurance Medical Pool |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: No Response |
| Chronic & Catastrophic Illnesses |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: Dedicate federal research on the basis of sound science resulting in greater focus on care and cure of chronic disease
Source: www.johnmccain.com Date: 12/05/2007 |
| Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: Today, some doctors are prevented by HMOs from openly discussing all medical treatments available to a patient. This is unconscionable. HMOs must not be allowed to stop doctors from openly discussing all possible care available, even if the procedures are not covered by the HMO. A doctor’s loyalty must be to the patient and not an HMO’s bottom line.
Source: Senate statement: “Health Care Reform” Date: 07/15/1999 |
| Medical Malpractice Reform |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: McCain supports the following principle regarding tax support of health care: Establish limits on the amount of damages awarded in medical malpractice lawsuits.
Source: Project Vote Smart, 1998 Date: 07/02/1998 |
| Medical Malpractice Lawsuit Limitations |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: Pass tort reform to eliminate frivolous lawsuits and excessive damage awards. Provide a safe harbor for doctors that follow clinical guidelines and adhere to patient safety protocols.
Source: www.johnmccain.com Date: 12/05/2007 |
| Business Tax Credits for Employee Health Coverage |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: No Response |
| Tax Credit / Deductible for Medical Insurance |
Barr: No Response |
Mccain: No Response |