I Still Feel Bad For Not Telling You Hillary Had A Better Health Care Proposal, So Tonight I'll Tell You All About The Advantages Of The McCain Plan.

Unless you live under some sort of rock in West Virginia, I don't have to tell you health care is a mess in this country. We spend more and get less under our current system than any other industrialized country on the planet, plus a few non-industrialized ones. I also don't have to tell you the crisis has only grown during the last 8 years while there has been an almost total lack of leadership from the current administration.

"It's been a core belief of mine that the federal government should stand for killing people" George Bush once didn't say in an interview. "Sometimes that requires an active killing policy, like in Iraq. In other instances, it's best to just let things take their own course, like during Hurricaine Katrina, or health care, where lots of people no doubt are dead because we don't really have a plan."

"I really like dead people" concluded Bush.*

All indications though, are that after the presidential election, big change might finally be coming to our health care system. Barack Obama's plan, while a little short of what Hillary Clinton was proposing, would both lower the cost of care and lower the number of the uninsured to however many people are dumb enough not to sign up for guaranteed, affordable coverage. John McCain puts forth a plan for change as well. A bold, far-reaching proposal that would fuck things up far worse than they are now. Read on.

If you believe irony is the best medicine, than the McCain plan is for you. Why? Because it's actually a huge tax increase! That's right, the standard-bearer of the party that talks ad nauseam about the evil of any dollars having to be sent to Uncle Sam, the party that never misses a chance to try and paint any Democrat as someone who does nothing but scheme for ways to have government get into your pocketbook, is now proposing that boatloads of more dollars end up in Washington. I'll have to get a little wonky to explain how. Stay with me.

First, McCain would end the tax break currently in place that lets you exclude the value of an employer-provided health care plan from your wages, replacing it with a tax credit of $2500 per person/$5000 per family so you can buy your own damn insurance. Some people would lose out right away, as the current tax break would be worth more to them. Others would have to wait awhile to be screwed, as the tax credit would be indexed to the inflation rate, not the rise of health insurance premiums. Everyone knows health insurance premiums rise faster than general inflation, including the people who came up with this plan. The result? Up to $3.6 trillion in new taxes over 10 years.

I should also mention the $2500/$5000 credit is meant to help you buy a product whose average cost is $12,000.

"Drugmonkey, I could totally find a health insurance plan for less than $2500 a year. Bring it on!!" You may be saying to yourself, and if you've never been sick a day in your life you might be right. Two things you might want to think about though. 1) What you're buying for that price is almost assuredly less coverage than you have now through your employer, and 2) Good luck keeping that rate after you file your first claim.

And if you've already been sick? You're fucked. Seriously. You think any insurance company is gonna sell a policy to your sick ass? Irony number 2: As a cancer survivor, John McCain wouldn't be covered by his own damn plan. Unfortunately, as an old fuck, he'd be eligible for Medicare. Otherwise I might be talked into supporting it purely on the grounds of spite.

So let's sum up:

1) Less coverage.

2) More money flowing out of your pocket to the feds.

3) Absolutely nothing done to address the out of control health care inflation that is crippling the current system.

Plus a hundred more years in Iraq! Sweet!

You know what to do come November.

*Again, he didn't really say this, but is there anyone out there who believes he doesn't think it?