McCain outlines market-based health care plan, which could bode badly for millions of employees.

Recently, candidate John McCain announced a development in his health care plan. He hopes to shift the focus away from employment-provided health care to one bought by the individual. To aid the plan he proposes the elimination of tax breaks that encourage employers to provide health care, and instead give $5,000 tax credits to families. The creation of a system that caters to individual families and not large masses of employees will hopefully, as per McCain, foster competition in the health insurance market.
An issue McCain faces is how to reconcile his vision with the real life needs of individuals with health care problems.
Employment-based health care would guarantee an insurance plan for every employee. The elimination of this would provide the possibility for an applicant to be denied insurance because of an existing health condition. Elizabeth Edwards, wife of Senator John Edwards, suggested that under McCain’s new plan even she and her husband could be denied health care.
Candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama recognize this problem and both vow to make discrimination based on health conditions illegal. Clinton believes that with McCain’s plan many Americans would lose job-based coverage, and Obama believes that even with tax credits many working class American families will lose the possibility of having affordable coverage.
Comparisons have been drawn between McCain’s individual-based plan and that of President Bush, which proved somewhat ineffective.