Sen. John McCain laid out his vision for the U.S. health-care system Tuesday, rejecting universal health insurance and embracing a system with fewer regulations in which consumers shop for coverage on their own rather than get it from an employer.
His plan, parts of which are similar to a failed effort by President Bush last year, embraces a Republican approach to an issue long dominated by Democrats. Sen. McCain aims to introduce more competition into the system, giving people more choice in insurance and the ability to keep it when they change jobs.
“The key to real reform is to restore control over our health-care system to the patients themselves,” Sen. McCain, the likely Republican presidential nominee, said Tuesday at the Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute. The address offered few details beyond the scant outline Sen. McCain first offered in October.
The plan isn’t expected to make a major dent in the number of uninsured Americans, and questions remain about how the plan would help older, sicker people who can’t find insurance on the open market.
The McCain health plan contrasts with Democratic plans, which propose spending $110 billion a year toward universal coverage. Both Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama would set up government-run insurance markets in which private companies and a government-run plan would compete. Democrats also would bar insurance companies from denying care or charging sicker people more, a proposal Sen. McCain rejects.
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