July 10, 2008 8:43 AM

More on McCain and right wing health care "reform"

This today from PSN's Adam Thompson on the right wing plan to "reform" health care by forcing folks into indivudal plans with high out-of-pocket costs:

As with John McCain's health care reform proposals, the Florida and Georgia plans are indicative of the Right's allegiance to "consumer-driven health care" - the idea that Americans will use less care if they must pay more out-of-pocket. As the New York Times reports, Sen. McCain wants Americans to purchase their insurance in the volatile and costly individual market, eschewing the stronger bargaining power and better consumer protections found in employer-based and large group coverage. The problem with this approach is that high out of pocket costs - which are the result of high deductible and limited benefit plans - lead consumers to avoid necessary care, resulting in worse outcomes and higher system-wide costs in the long run.

Adam's piece does a great job of outlining the flaws of state-level attempts to implement the kind of bilking-in-disguise approach that I slammed McCain for introducing yesterday. It also comes on the heels of another timely article in the Times about the vangard of the health care reform battle in the states. Colorado's legislation to subject insurance premium rate hikes to strict supervision gets a much-deserved nod. More importantly, the article spends a good deal of time expounding the benefits of pooling, the best thing going as far as pragmatic approaches to health care for all making real advances at the state level.

An important benefit of pooling, and one that gets a great deal of well-deserved play in the Times piece, is that it will enable small businesses who can't afford to cover their employee's healthcare to do so, and to help those small businesses who are doing the right thing and providing coverage but getting hammered in the pocket book as thanks for their generosity.

Quite a sad state of affairs as laid out by the Times:

Nationally, the percentage of businesses with fewer than 200 employees that offer insurance fell to 59 percent last year, down from 66 percent as recently as 2002, according to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. And less than half of the smallest companies, those with under 10 employees, were providing coverage last year.

But can states really do anything to remedy this situation?

At least they seem to be digging in the right place.

Hopefully increased exposure for the kind of pooling bills like the Connecticut model featured prominently in the Times piece will help build federal support for the most sensible and politically feasible reform option on the table. Otherwise the states will just continue to do what they do best: fight uphill battles to stretch limited means toward solving the nation's toughest problems.