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McCain’s Lies of Omission |
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This morning in Wisconsin, John McCain expanded a bit on his health care plan. He said:
I’ll give every family in America a $5000 refundable tax credit to buy their own health insurance policy and let them choose their own doctor. This will make insurance affordable to every American. We’ll double the child exception from $3500 to $7000 to help families pay for the rising cost of living. Under my plan, a married couple with two children making $35,000 will get $5000 to pay for health insurance and additional medical expenses. This family would get another$1050 from my child exemption. That adds up to over $6000. That’s a lot more than what any hard-working middle class family gets under the Obama plan.
Senator McCain seems to think giving families a $6,000 tax credit will do it. He’s wrong. First off, tax credits are cold comfort to working people living paycheck to paycheck. If you can barely afford to put food on the table or fill up your gas tank to get to work, how are you going to afford to pay for health insurance out of your own pocket for an entire year until the tax credit from Uncle Sam arrives in the mail in the spring?
And of course, even if tax credits were a good idea in principle - which they’re not - the numbers just don’t add up. As Richard Kirsch, our national campaign director, explains:
When the average family health insurance plan runs $12,000/year, how does Senator McCain suggest that family of four earning $35,000/year find $6,000 or $7,000? In addition, McCain’s assertion that his plan would let you choose your own doctor is a complete fabrication. Not only would his plan continue to let the insurance industry call the shots and limit your choice of doctors, but McCain’s inadequate tax credit would push people into bare bones plans with even more restrictions on whom they can or can’t see.
More telling is the things Senator McCain didn’t say about his health care plan. Like the fact it would get rid of employee based health care, leaving working people who already have enough to worry about at the mercy of the insurance companies. Or the fact that McCain would tax any health benefits you receive.
Oh, and another thing. Here’s Richard again:
See, Senator McCain enjoys the government health care he keeps attacking. He has coverage through the Veterans Administration, which is government run, socialized medicine. He’s covered under the Federal Employees Health Benefit System, which is government paid for, regulated private insurance. And as a senior citizen, Senator McCain is eligible for Medicare which is government health insurance. All these allow McCain to “see [his] doctor fairly frequently†as he told reporters in March.
And yet he believes none of these solutions are right for the rest of America, many of whom can’t afford to see their doctor at all.
Here’s the video of that comment, Senator McCain claming that “like most Americans [he] sees [his] doctor fairly frequently:”
As Richard said, public health care programs seem to be good enough for Senator McCain, but not good enough for you.
(also posted at the NOW! blog)
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