Presidential Candidates Vie for Best Health Care Plan

National trends in health care are currently pointing towards universal plans and improvements for Medicare. Many states, including California, have tried to institute universal health care, but only few, such as Massachusetts, have succeeded. The primary concern with Medicare is funding.

As the race to the White House continues, each candidate presents solutions to these issues. Obama, Clinton and McCain all have different ideas, though the two democrats’ plans are more similar.

McCain takes the stance that citizens should take personal initiative. He believes in insurance changes that would not only inspire competition between providers, but also initiative among citizens to obtain insurance. With this plan, not everyone would have insurance—it would still leave out many people who, for reasons of time, money or otherwise, are not able to take initiative.

On the other hand, Clinton maintains that everyone should have insurance, and it should be made available through employment. She plans to extend programs like Medicare, and to create a Federal Employee Health Benefits Program. We can only hope that her mishaps in the (Bill) Clinton Administration will not be repeated.

Obama also focuses on employee insurance programs, but with the additional provisions for small businesses and individuals who would not have access to those programs.

Obama and Clinton both require that everyone have health insurance, while McCain makes no mandate.

Each candidate has a different target group: Obama, through programs such as SCHIP, focuses on children; McCain wants to help veterans by improving usefulness of VA benefits; Clinton has the idealistic goal of helping everyone.

Which of these looks the best? I am anxious to see whether Clinton’s plan proves too ambitious, or McCain’s and Obama’s too exclusive.