Oberlander explores McCain, Obama health care plans in NEJM perspective
| August 25, 2008 | |
 Jonathan Oberlander, PhD, associate professor of health policy and management and social medicine at the University of North Carolina, explores the differences in the health care reform plans of Presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama in a perspective published in the Aug. 21, 2008 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. “The candidates’ opposing visions of health care reform reflect fundamentally different assumptions about the virtues and vices of markets and government,” Oberlander writes in the perspective. “With the debate over how to reform U.S. health care far from settled, whoever wins the presidency can expect fierce opposition to any attempt at comprehensive reform.” Oberlander summarizes the plans proposed by presumptive Republican candidate, Sen. John McCain and the presumptive Democratic candidate, Sen. Barack Obama. He says McCain’s plan embraces market forces and promotes individually purchased insurance. Its centerpiece is a change in the tax treatment of health insurance (eliminating the current tax exclusion for employer-paid health insurance premiums). In contrast, Obama’s reform plan relies on an employer mandate, new pubic and private insurance programs and insurance market regulation. The core of the Obama plan is a requirement that employers wither offer their workers insurance or pay a tax to help finance coverage. Oberlander points out potential flaws in both plans – McCain’s plan may not effectively control health care costs, and probably would not provide insurance for most of the nation’s uninsured. Obama’s plan would substantially expand access to insurance, but lacks reliable cost-control mechanisms and a viable financing source, he says. “In the face of escalating costs, uneven quality of care and the growth of the uninsured population, there is broad agreement that the U.S. health care system requires reform,” he writes. “However, Democrats and Republicans remain sharply divided over how to reform it.” Oberlander’s perspective is available at www.nejm.org. Oberlander also was interviewed on NPR’s Morning Edition, and that interview can be found at www.npr.org. # # # Note: Dr. Oberlander can be reached at 919-843-8269 or jonathan_oberlander@med.unc.edu. School of Public Health contact: Ramona DuBose, director of communications, (919) 966-7467 or ramona_dubose@unc.edu. |
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