Look! This campaign actually has subtance: Health Care

Thanks John. Edward's has finally pulled the plug, making my overview of candidate policies a bit easier.

The key difference between the two remaining candidates health care plans is choice v. requirement. Obama's plan would provide people the choice to obtain affordable health care insurance, while Clinton's would require it - the dreaded universal health care.

Both would allow people who are happy with their current coverage to maintain their coverage. Both would also offer a new public plan, crafted in the image of Medicare, and offer the same type of plan offered to members of Congress.

To ensure that those who can not afford insurance are able to meet the requirement of insurance Clinton's plan would offer: refundable tax credits, limit premiums to a percentage of income and create a tax credit for small businesses to encourage them to cover employees.

Obama's plan touts low premiums and co-pays (without providing specifics). Obama would also offer subsidies to those who do not qualify for SCHIP or Medicare. He would require that all children are insured (a notion implicit in Clinton's universal plan) and raise the age that young adults can stay on their parents plan up to 25.

Both would eliminate insurance company discrimination based on pre-existing conditions. To achieve this Clinton says she would require that insurance companies automatically renew a person's policy if they wish to remain in that policy. It would also prohibit insurers from charging different premiums based on age, gender or occupation.

Additionally, under Clinton's plan, premiums collected by insurers must be dedicated to quality health care coverage, not excessive profits or marketing. Obama's plan offers a similar measure, but he sees it as a way to increase competition. Under his plan only insurance companies in regions that lack competition would be required to dedicate premiums.

In an effort to reign in the cost of prescription drugs, both would repeal the 2003 Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act, which forbade Medicare from negotiating directly with pharmaceutical companies. This cost saving measure is rooted in precedent, the Veterans Administration's ability to directly negotiate prescription drug prices has been seen as a success.

Both candidates want to help reduce cost by stopping overpayments to Medicare. Obama proposes eliminating payments made to Medicare's private plan alternative, called Medicare Advantage. Obama says that the government pays 12 percent more to treat patients with comparable conditions through Medicare Advantage than it does through traditional Medicare. Clinton does not specify how she would end Medicare overpayments.

Obama's plan would also include protection from the catastrophic cost associated with catastrophic illness/injury. The plan would reimburse employers a percentage of catastrophic cost that employers incur above a certain, undetermined, threshold. Clinton's plan includes no such provision.

Clinton estimates her plan will cost $110 billion a year, she plans to pay for it, in part, by rolling back the Bush tax cuts on those earning $250,000 a year. She also will limit the amount employers can exclude from taxes for health care benefits paid for those making over $250,000.

Obama estimates his plan will cost between $50 to $60 billion a year once fully implemented, and he will also fund it by rolling back the Bush tax cuts on those making $250,000 per year.

I try to inject a bit of personality and humor into my posts, but the only thing drier than health care reform is Fred Thompson on the stump. Needless to say health care, like Grandpa Fred, does not lend itself to humor.