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May
2
As a Republican presidential candidate, and as the presumptive GOP nominee, U.S. Sen. John McCain visited Northeast Ohio on Thursday with 47 million reasons to discuss what he thinks ails America’s health care system.
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To address what he intends to do about that should he be elected president on Nov. 4, the Arizona senator held a town hall meeting Thursday morning at the Cleveland Clinic.
McCain told the capacity crowd - which included GOP notables such as former U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine, Ohio Party Chairman Bob Bennett and State Rep. Josh Mandel of Lyndhurst, who just returned Wednesday from his second tour of duty in Iraq as a U.S. Marine sergeant - that he wants to return the responsibility and focus of health care to the people.
Plunderbund posted video shot at the Clinic event.
Here’s more about McCain’s health plan from Jeff Coryell of Ohio Daily Blog.
Please read all of Jeff’s post, but here’s the meat of the plan (Jeff includes Ohio politicians’ reactions):
…Although McCain has said that his plan “doesn’t leave anyone behind,” the fact is that it continues the disastrous Bush policy of ignoring the 47 million uninsured Americans.
Kevin Sack spelled it out in a comprehensive comparison of health care plans in the New York Times in March. Both Democratic candidates have plans that focus on universal coverage, although they differ slightly in their approach. McCain’s plan is about using tax policy purportedly to promote competition in the health care marketplace. Assuring coverage for all simply isn’t his priority. He doesn’t even have an estimate of how many of America’s uninsured would likely gain coverage under his plan.
As for what the McCain plan does include, it’s all great news for corporations and bad news for ordinary people. First, he would eliminate the longstanding tax exemption on health benefits paid by employers. Without this incentive, the gradual trend of employers dropping health benefits will accelerate dramatically. As pointed out in the Wall Street Journal, “the result would likely be an erosion of employer-sponsored insurance and an increase in plans bought on the open market.” McCain’s alternative of providing tax credits to individuals for health costs is a classic Republican scheme that gives a big boon to the wealthy but does little good to struggling working families. Those who are poor or have high medical expenses simply can’t afford the up-front costs. (In other words, it’s a lot like the GOP-favored health care savings accounts, which a GAO report just out shows are increasingly popular as a tax shelter for the wealthy.)
Second, McCain would allow policies to be sold across state lines. Cross-border insurance sets up a classic race to the bottom. In other words, it allows “health-insurance companies to escape state regulations they don’t like, such as rules allowing for appeals when companies deny coverage and rules requiring insurers to cover people with various conditions or to cover particular types of treatments. The companies would likely gravitate to the states with the regulations they most favored.” State mandates that could be avoided include coverage for emergency room care (currently required in Ohio but not required in six other states), direct access to OB/GYN, coverage of colorectal cancer screening, and mental health parity. As Redfern said in the conference call, the McCain plan “lowers the bar for what qualifies as adequate health care.”
As for people with pre-existing conditions, McCain has made vague noises about setting up a Medicaid trust fund to help them. That makes no sense, since Medicaid is a program for the poor and pre-existing conditions can make even middle-class or wealthy people uninsurable. This is particularly shocking since McCain himself is a cancer survivor, and cancer survivors are put directly at risk by the changes McCain wants to impose.
I’m not familiar with Mandel’s stance on health care (I’ve never asked), but I imagine it will be posted when his campaign website is complete.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:28 am May 2nd, 2008 in Business, Campaigning, Cleveland+, Economy, John McCain, OH17, Ohio, Politics, Republicans, Statehouse, WH2008
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8 Responses to “Mandel makes time to join GOP presidential nominee John McCain in Ohio”
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What is the “makes time” implying? Just curious JMZ.
Made time - took time - what would you have written?
“Mandel joins GOP Presidential Nominee John McCain in Ohio.” That would’ve said, without any further implication, what transpired.
By saying, “makes time,” the implication is that he had other, more important things he should have been doing.
Conversely, if you had linked to this article, http://www.wkyc.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=88535, detailing how he was meeting with residents already, then the “makes time” phrase would’ve been more appropriate.
Standing alone, however, makes it seem as if there was a purposeful slant to the headline.
Sheesh - I thought I was the resident overthinker.
The poor guy just returned from the Middle East on Weds. Have you ever traveled to the Middle East? I haven’t been as far as Iraq, but I have been to Israel. That’s a long trip. After nine months. When I’m recuperating from a plane ride, ANYTHING I do is something I’ve made time for.
Boy - you guys need to get busy.
Btw, for the record - I should add that Josh also very kindly “made time” to call me. In part, I assume, because I “made time” to welcome him on his safe return and Mazel Tov on his nuptuals AND tell him how outstanding Michael Lord is.
People who are busy have to “make time” a lot of the time.
Jill, I’ll take you at your word.
Nevertheless, given the fact that you’ve made it known you disagree with his positions on a host of issues, don’t you think it’s reasonable to infer and take into account any potential biases that you may have when you write about Mandel?
Greg - point well-taken, absolutely.
But please - isn’t it usually the case that if I’m going to say something about him that conflicts, I say it right out - and I make a point of restating what’s well-known - that I didn’t vote for him or donate to him.
People say I cried wolf on sexism and misogyny with the TNR cover last week - that’s absurd to me, but that’s what several readers thought I was doing.
Well - I’m saying that you are crying wolf here. It’s still a personal blog that’s going to reflect my writing, as writing, from me. I’m a 45 year old woman with three school age kids who can no longer run around and fit in 1000s of things in the day. 100s, yes, 1000s no.
So - to say “made time for” - come visit my home sometime. You will see - everything is about making time for it.
Promise.
Fair enough.