Which Presidential Candidate has the better plan for health care?

Powerful Patient, 2008 Week 45

Joyce Graff, host, on webtalkradio.net

Larry Jemison

Beginning November 3, 2008

As the U.S. Presidential election nears, one important debate centers around providing health care for Americans. Larry Jemison, MBA, author of the book "How to Make it in a World that Wasn't Made for You," talks with Joyce about his perspective on this issue.

About Our Guest

Larry Jemison earned a marketing degree from Tuskeegee University, and a Master’s in Business Administration from Babson College, which is often noted as the number-one program in America for Entrepreneurial Studies (U.S. News & World Report).

He has spent over twelve years in the corporate sector as a leader in the areas of finance, training, and marketing and sales with companies such as FedEx, Novartis Pharmaceuticals, and Lucent Technologies. He is now working as a consultant and motivational speaker, and has written a new book, “How to Make it in a World that Wasn't Made for You.” Larry's efforts are to help mold, define, and polish the company's most prized assets, its employees.

About America’s Health Care Crisis

Forty-six million Americans have no health care insurance, out of a population of approximately 300 million, meaning that one person in six is uninsured. These people cannot afford to get sick.

Even the American Medical Association, long an opponent of health care reform, has launched a major effort to address this problem. In their words, these 46,000,000 people:

They can’t afford health insurance.
They have pre-existing conditions.
They have limited access to health plans and benefits.
No matter what, they live sicker and die younger.

America is already paying an exorbitant cost for its current broken health care system.

The Presidential candidates’ proposals

"The reason we are having this conversation as a nation is because health care costs too much for middle-class families, and that is not going away," says Len Nichols, Ph.D. economist. "Employers are very worried about international competition and the amount of potential investment we spend on health care every year."

Health care spending now consumes 17 percent of the median family income, a jump of 10 percent during the past several years, Nichols says.

"The middle class is worried about paying for health care in a good economy," says Nichols. "But in a bad economy, it is even worse; and employers are saying, 'My God, I have to move jobs overseas, or I cannot compete.' The cost of doing nothing is really high."

The Kaiser Foundation has compiled a number of webcasts, interviews with each of the candidates and their close advisers, about health care.
See http://www.kaisernetwork.org/health_cast

Listing the candidates in alphabetical order:

John McCain and Sarah Palin (Republican ticket)
http://www.gop.com/2008Platform/HealthCare.htm

In brief: it is a social responsibility to make sure everyone has a choice, but that it is not the government's responsibility or a social responsibility to make sure everyone is covered. There is no outline of how we would address the 46 million currently uninsured.

Barak Obama and Joe Biden (Democratic ticket)
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/healthcare/

In brief: it is our social responsibility to make sure everyone has access to affordable coverage.

Comments on the two plans:

American Academy of Family Physicians
http://www.aafp.org/online/en/home/publications/news/news-now/government-medicine/20080924candidateplans.html

American Medical Association has a website devoted to the problem of coverage for people who are currently uninsured, which includes their proposal and a number of educational documents and videos. Watch in particular Nancy’s story, and at least one other of the stories on the front page of this site.

http://www.voicefortheuninsured.org/

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
http://covertheuninsured.org/

This site includes very helpful data about the problem, personal stories, and videos. It also includes helpful information for individuals and families facing these problems, and its Faith Planning Center helps faith communities focus plans and actions to help members of their communities.

A Word About YouTube

There are also a number of videos on YouTube with clips of the candidates talking about their health plans. Many are made by people who are promoting one candidate or another, or which are blatantly produced to disparage one of the candidates. Be careful to avoid these, as they presented very slanted views.

You can find even-handed coverage by searching for these search terms and checking carefully to see who prepared the video, as “related videos” are advertised around each one. Look for videos produced by the Kaiser Foundation, the American Medical Association, or the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, all of which are focused on the health care problem per se, and not on any one candidate.

            kaiserfoundation
            nancy nielsen
            covertheuninsured

Please Vote!