On health care: Obama to increase coverage, McCain to increase taxes

Does anyone remember that there are actual issues at stake in this election? Looking at recent media coverage, the answer isn't clear. One of the biggest looming issues will be the ongoing health care crisis.

Several scholars (including one advising Obama's campaign) have written an article for the Wall Street Journal outlining the differences between the two candidates' health care plans. This article is well worth reading.

Of significance:

"The Obama plan would give individuals and small firms the option of joining large insurance pools. With large patient pools, a few people incurring high medical costs will not topple the entire system, so insurers would no longer need to waste time, money and resources weeding out the healthy from the sick, and businesses and individuals would no longer have to subject themselves to that costly and stressful process."

By way of contrast:

"Sen. McCain, who constantly repeats his no-new-taxes promise on the campaign trail, proposes a big tax hike as the solution to our health-care crisis. His plan would raise taxes on workers who receive health benefits, with the idea of encouraging their employers to drop coverage. A study conducted by University of Michigan economist Tom Buchmueller and colleagues published in the journal Health Affairs suggests that the McCain tax hike will lead employers to drop coverage for over 20 million Americans."

Full column here.