McCain camp working out healthcare details
Aides struggle to sort out his promises
By Michael Kranish
Boston Globe Staff | April 3, 2008
WASHINGTON - When Senator John McCain unveiled his healthcare proposal last fall, a journalist asked whether the Arizona senator's battle against skin cancer would make him sympathetic to the idea of requiring that insurance companies provide coverage to people with preexisting conditions.
McCain flatly rejected the idea. "That would be mandating what the free enterprise system does," McCain said.
McCain's response highlights the challenge he faces as he prepares to try to sell his healthcare plan in the fall campaign. He says the country must provide access to healthcare for all our citizens, and that "we need to help people who need it." But McCain also wants to shrink government's role in healthcare and doesn't want to impose regulations on insurance companies.
As a result, McCain's aides have been scrambling to come up with ways to satisfy those who want more coverage without violating what they call McCain's conservative principles on the issue.
McCain, for example, has spoken in general terms about how he might help people with preexisting conditions. He has said he favors what he calls a "special provision including additional trust funds for Medicaid payments." The comment left even some of his aides unsure of his meaning. Medicaid funds are generally used to help lower-income Americans.
Lately, some of McCain's aides have said he might try to divert some Medicaid funds into a program that would help people with preexisting conditions, but his advisers can't yet say how such a program would work or how many people would be covered.
(Continued here.)
By Michael Kranish
Boston Globe Staff | April 3, 2008
WASHINGTON - When Senator John McCain unveiled his healthcare proposal last fall, a journalist asked whether the Arizona senator's battle against skin cancer would make him sympathetic to the idea of requiring that insurance companies provide coverage to people with preexisting conditions.
McCain flatly rejected the idea. "That would be mandating what the free enterprise system does," McCain said.
McCain's response highlights the challenge he faces as he prepares to try to sell his healthcare plan in the fall campaign. He says the country must provide access to healthcare for all our citizens, and that "we need to help people who need it." But McCain also wants to shrink government's role in healthcare and doesn't want to impose regulations on insurance companies.
As a result, McCain's aides have been scrambling to come up with ways to satisfy those who want more coverage without violating what they call McCain's conservative principles on the issue.
McCain, for example, has spoken in general terms about how he might help people with preexisting conditions. He has said he favors what he calls a "special provision including additional trust funds for Medicaid payments." The comment left even some of his aides unsure of his meaning. Medicaid funds are generally used to help lower-income Americans.
Lately, some of McCain's aides have said he might try to divert some Medicaid funds into a program that would help people with preexisting conditions, but his advisers can't yet say how such a program would work or how many people would be covered.
(Continued here.)
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