2008 Health Care Reform and Children
A recent report released by First Focus (www.firstfocus.net) examines how the presidential candidates health care reform plans will impact children, and identifies pros and cons with each plan, as they relate to children. The report also takes into account the unique health care needs of children including the impacts of tax credits, purchasing private health insurance across state lines etc.
Recently, there has been a significant amount of time spent by various organizations analyzing each candidates respective health care plans and postulating about what the impacts might be. However, this is the first study that we have seen to specifically address what the impacts might be on children’s health coverage specifically. The report was commissioned by First Focus and authored by Peter Harbage, Hilary Haycock, and Michael Odeh of Harbage Consulting, LLC.
The report can be viewed at http://www.firstfocus.net/pages/3519/.
note: First Focus claims to be a bi-partisan group, but the report clearly seems to be biased against McCain’s plan. For example, the report claims that the ability to purchase health insurance across state lines will result in million children losing coverage due to the absence of mandated benefits. The ability to purchase health insurance across state lines, is an option but will not change a families ability to purchase coverage within a state of residence that currently has desired mandated benefits in place.
