As I've plugged previously, this week, TAP is examining the McCain agenda. Today, I take a look at his health care plan, which is bad enough to bring Scary McCain Face out of retirement for one last go. An excerpt:It's 3 a.m. and your child is awake. She's been up coughing all night, fever resting between 101 degrees and, for a few scary minutes, 103. You and your husband spent hours trying to decide whether to take her to the emergency room. A couple times, you even started toward the car. But you know you can't afford a trip to the hospital. You don't have health insurance.It's 3 p.m. and your child is finally asleep, her forehead still hot to the touch. Somewhere in the house, a phone is ringing. It's your old insurance company, the one you had before your employer decided to make you a contractor rather than a full-time employee. Sorry, they say, but your family just doesn't fit their risk profile. They've got nothing in your price range. What if we pay a little more, you ask, rapidly weighing the consequences of taking out another mortgage or shifting more purchases to credit. Sorry, the even-voiced representative says, this time more firmly, they really don't have anything for you at all.It is a call -- or, sometimes, merely a letter -- that millions of Americans have received, particularly those not covered by large employers or the federal government. These Americans are rejected for health insurance because they were sick once, or because they're too old now, or for no apparent reason at all. They are rejected because insurers make money by not paying for care. To get an idea of how insurers think about care provision, it's worth knowing that they routinely speak of "medical-loss ratios" -- the amount of money they "lose" paying for the medical treatment of their customers. But you can't blame them, really: Insurers seek to make a profit, and some of us are simply not profitable.It is not a call that John McCain has ever received.Read on...
