Questions On Health Care Policy For McCain

Elizabeth Edwards (wife of former presidential candidate John Edwards) provides some thoughts on John McCain’s healthcare plan on the The Wonk Room blog.  It will be interesting to see if his team engages in the conversation and provides a response.  Regardless, I think the key points are good ones for any candidate to answer:

1. How are we going to address pre-existing conditions?  We can’t exclude or gouge people that have chronic diseases.  On the other hand, it is often the fact that they don’t manage these diseases that drive up costs.  Would it be reasonable to charge them more if they didn’t take responsibility for their disease?
2. What is the long-term market mechanism to make sure that the solution doesn’t increase costs?
3. Will this really be cheaper for everyone in America?  Does the estimate include all the patient’s out-of-pocket costs for healthcare – copays and deductibles?  If the plans being proposed talk about shifting away from employer sponsored, do you really think that those dollars are going to be shifted to higher wages?   

These are my generalizations of her questions.  The Kaiser Family Foundation has put out a PDF which compares the plans of the three candidates – Clinton, Obama, and McCain.