McCain, Obama duel over Health Care

Medicare has become the moot point in the presidential campaign. Democratic nominee Barack Obama’s campaign talks of changes and more changes in Medicare.

Both campaigns are already running ads and counter attack ads on each others ideas. McCain wants Congress to generate funds by repealing the tax exclusion for employer-sponsored health insurance.

Obama, on the other hand wants to make large employers who do not provide insurance contribute financially. He accuses Republican John McCain of seeking "cuts in benefits, eligibility, or both."

A word of caution for Obama. His charge of cuts in benefits is built on a shaky foundation. There is no evidence that McCain has talked of cutting benefits in either of the two programs: Medicaid and Medicare.

McCain’s web site quotes him, "We must reform the payment systems in Medicaid and Medicare to compensate providers for diagnosis, prevention and care coordination. Medicaid and Medicare should not pay for preventable medical errors or mismanagement."

McCain's economic policy adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, has refuted Obama’s allegations that McCain would cut Medicare benefits. He said, "There are many opportunities to deliver the same benefits in Medicare for lower costs and thus take pressure off premiums for the beneficiaries. That's a very different thing than the idea you would be cutting Medicare."

Obama has proposed a system similar to the Federal Employees Benefits Program, a private system that works well. On the other side of the coin McCain would not get rid of the government programs of Medicaid and Medicare.

Rather, McCain has taken up the tune that the foundation of the government's payments should be on the quality of care that patients get than on quantity, which is how the current fee-for-service-system operates.

So does Barack intend to rob Peter to pay Paul? He definitely proposes to take away tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans that (President) George Bush gave them. He aims to tax the rich more, in greater proportion.