McCain’s expensive health plan

Now that McCain is the presumptive GOP Presidential nominee, I’ll be spending a bit more time analyzing his health care plan. I’ve examined his plan before, but the Senator has made some progress, refining concepts and defining specifics.
First, lets find out how much this trip on the ‘straight talk express’ will cost.
According to McCain’s website, the plan will “eliminate the bias toward employer-sponsored health insurance, and provide all individuals with a $2,500 tax credit ($5,000 for families) to increase incentives for insurance coverage.”
“All” evidently means just that – no income indexing, cap based on total taxpayer income, or any other means test. Folks making a gazillion bucks get the same credit as those earning income below the poverty level.
McCain would likely take the revenue created by repealing the employer tax breaks for health insurance (noted in his proposals) to fund his plan’s new health tax credits. The result? The cost of the tax credits would be $206 billion in FY 2009 and $3.6 trillion over 10 years.
Notably, nowhere on McCain’s website or in his policy papers does he say what the plan will cost. But his statements leave little doubt as to what he wants to do, and the Joint Committee on Taxation’s report on the McCain health plan clearly demonstrates the financial impact of his plan.
Equally notable, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, one of McCain’s key advisers agreed that his plan would increase the budget deficit, saying “It will make deficits expand up front, no question…” (Holtz goes on to say that helping corporations helps workers…)
McCain’s plan will cost more than either the Clinton or Obama plans. To figure out whether it will be worth it, we’ll have to consider whether the $2500/5000 credit will be enough to help folks actually buy insurance and reduce the number of uninsured.