McCain praises Crist's 'Cover Florida' plan

By Carol Gentry
4/30/2008 © Florida Health News

TAMPA – Sen. John McCain praised Florida Gov. Charlie Crist’s “Cover Florida” plan on Tuesday and said that as President he would encourage development of similar cost-cutting maneuvers to roll back the price of health insurance so more Americans can afford to buy it. The Crist plan, currently stuck in the House, would let Floridians buy scaled-down health policies for as little as $150 a month. (House Speaker Marco Rubio is holding up passage, insisting that his own ideas for a health-plan "marketplace" be included, the Miami Herald reports.) 

McCain

In a 27-minute speech to an invited audience at H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center, McCain debuted the major themes of a health-insurance program that could hardly be more different from those of either Democratic opponent. It would not attempt to cover the 47 million uninsured through any government program, but would help more people buy policies through tax credits and making no-frills plans available nationwide.

McCain would encourage a shift away from employer-based insurance to individual coverage that Americans could take with them wherever they worked. He would do away with state regulation in favor of a national marketplace.

“We need to break down these barriers to competition, innovation and excellence,” he said.

He offered no assurances to those who cannot buy insurance coverage at any price – the sick and high-risk. “I will work tirelessly to address the problem,” McCain said. “But I won’t create another entitlement program that Washington will let get out of control. Nor will I saddle states with another unfunded mandate” by ordering them to create such programs. He said he might help states to create private, non-profit “guaranteed-access plans.” (Later Tuesday, McCain's domestic policy advisor Douglas Holtz-Eakin said the federal government might be able to put $7 billion or more into such a program from savings in payments to hospitals for uncompensated care, the New York Times reported.)

McCain said he would stimulate shopping by making more information on price and quality available to consumers. “When families are informed about medical choices, they are more capable of making their own decisions, less likely to choose the most expensive and often unnecessary options, and are more satisfied with their choices,” he said.

He would provide tax credits to cover part of the cost of buying a policy, he said, and would end medical malpractice suits against health providers who followed guidelines. That brought bursts of applause from the audience of health-care professionals, cancer researchers, University of South Florida faculty and graduate students and Republican fundraisers.

Exactly how McCain would pull off some of his suggestions – including consolidation of the blizzard of bills from health-care providers into one single bill after an illness –remains unclear. After delivering his speech, McCain took no questions, but left immediately for a $1,000-a-plate fundraising luncheon.

--Carol Gentry, editor, can be reached at Carol.Gentry@FloridaHealthNews.org or 727-410-3266.