Today’s anointed front-runner in the GOP is John McCain (a position he may hold longer than Sen. Obama did on the other side of the aisle). Here’s where the senator stands on health care.
Analysis
The quick take is this: McCain’s plan has some strong points and resonates with Republicans, but most GOP voters aren’t thinking about health care.
While most other candidates are talking about covering the uninsured, McCain is focused on cost. More specifically, the cost of chronic conditions such as diabetes, asthma and CAD which account for 75% of the US’ entire $2 trillion health care bill. McCain is not just pointing out the obvious, he also plans to attack these costs by altering reimbursement – paying providers for maintaining health rather than reimbursing for specific procedures.
Here’s how McCain put it:
“We should pay a single bill for high-quality health care, not an endless series of bills for presurgical tests and visits, hospitalization and surgery, and follow-up tests, drugs and office visits,”
That makes a ton of sense. It is also entirely consistent with the views of George Halvorson, CEO of Kaiser Permanente, outlined in his book Health Care Reform Now (which came out just a few days before McCain’s first major speech on health care). If McCain is reading Halvorson, that’s a good thing.
So far, so good. So far.
Insight, analysis & opinion from Joe Paduda