In Ohio 920,000 would lose their insurance under McCain's healthcare plan.

[Joanne98]

McCain's Health Care Plan: Making Consumers Suffer More

Senator John McCain's health care plan ties the hands of state insurance regulators and puts consumers at risk, according to Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius.

In a conference call this morning with Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner Joel Ario and Ohio Insurance Commissioner Mary Jo Hudson, Sebelius discussed the effect John McCain's health care plan has on state protections for consumers.

Sebelius, who prior to being elected governor served as the Insurance Commissioner for Kansas for eight years, warned that McCain's plan puts people at risk. She explained that the McCain plan proposes dismantling current protections. "In an article that he wrote, McCain outlined deregulating the health care industry the same way the banking industry has been deregulated," Sebelius said, referring to the current economic crisis, which many blame on banking deregulation.

The Obama-Biden campaign agrees, and in a press release wrote, "In keeping with his commitment to do "to the insurance industry" what he's done to the banking industry, John McCain's plan would deregulate insurance and put the interests of insurance companies ahead of American families by eliminating independent reviews of coverage denials and undermining key state protections, such as breast cancer screenings and mandatory vaccinations."

Ario, Sebelius, and Hudson all explained that state regulators, who are overseen by the Commissioner's office, ensure that consumers get the health care promised to them within the insurance plan they bought. Sebelius described situations in which her office protected people who were denied chemotherapy, covered medications, and even the full length of covered hospital stay for mothers and newborns.

Ario said that the McCain plan destroys the group market, which is currently the market that is working. He said that the group market spread health care across a group pool, which keeps rates stable and affordable. "McCain's plan steers us towards the individual market, which is broken, when what we need to do is steer the individual market towards the group market," he said.

Consumer protection varies among states, Ario said, and so some states would have better protections that others, but all would carry risk for the consumer. 33 states have high risk pools, but those only cover approximately 300,000 out of approximately 70 million. "Once you segregate the sick,"Ario said, "It becomes too expensive to cover, so the rates get too high and they set caps on the care."

Hudson said that the most troubling aspect to her was that the McCain plan starts by taxing the employer for benefits offered to employees.

She said that in Ohio, "920,00 would lose their insurance under McCain's plan, especially in this fragile market." That would nearly double the number of uninsured in Ohio.

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