Kudos to McCain for his healthcare solutions

Mindy Finn, Political Strategist
Voters are looking for candidates to act presidential and provide solutions to Americans' looming concerns - and as gas prices and unemployment rise, health care concerns have risen as well.

The candidates have been providing solutions to improve our health care system, although their plans are based on vastly contrasting visions.

Senator John McCain released his plan, what his aides are calling a "radical" rethinking of health coverage, which focuses on market-based solutions that put choices more in the hands of individuals and families and less in the hands of corporations.

McCain's plan flies in the face of the Democratic plans - supported by Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama - which call for coverage mandates, what we know as universal health care.

McCain favors tax incentives over mandates and his plan is designed to avoid direct regulation of insurers. Both Clinton and Obama, however, want to stick with the employer-based system - the system that McCain and many right-of-center Americans see as the basis of the growing health insurance debacle - and the Democrats want to impose new regulations on insurers.

It comes down to a fight about the economics of health care, and two fundamentally different philosophies for easing Americans' health care anxiety - one that puts control in the hands of individuals and families vs. one that puts control in the hands of the government.

Ironically, a debate over health care, which presumably stands for stronger, healthier and happier people may well turn into a heated, angry battle - between the candidates, and also between 3rd party interest groups.

Already, the SEIU, the Services Employees International Union, is running television ads endorsing Obama and opposing McCain's health care plan. The ad features individuals griping about McCain's plan, likening it to President Bush's, and saying how the plan will make it harder for poor and sick Americans to get coverage.

One of the gripes Democrats have with McCain's plan is that they say it doesn't account for the poor and those with pre-existing conditions. McCain says that his plan will include a GAP option, which is a last resort option to give coverage for those who can't get coverage on their own. Democrats don't buy it.

With the Democratic primary raging on, McCain needs to claim his rightful spot in the stories of the day, and at the same time, he seeks to drum up conservative support for his policies -- perhaps from conservatives who are not so thrilled about him being the Republican nominee.

Nevertheless, whoever is elected president will be expected to come to office with a real solution to our impending health insurance crisis. Kudos to McCain for putting solutions on the table, and opening up real debate on the issue.