This has certainly been a colorful year for anyone who participates in the voting process, from those young enough to be observing & forming opinions to those who have been voting for decades.  Each candidate has made recommendations on how to improve the current healthcare system.  It is not my intent to use this forum to push one candidate over another, but to open discussion to the views of the three candidates running at the time of this writing.  Let’s start a sumary of plans from the Republican candidate, since that candidacy is finalized. . . Visit each candidate’s website (the hyperlink will send you directly to their page regarding their plan for any changes they would make as President regarding healthcare).  Offer your thoughts.  We vote on a candidate for many of their views generally.  What are your thoughts on each candidate’s plans specifically regarding healthcare? *** (See note at end of page)

Per John McCain’s website, he supports the following:

• Reform The Tax Code To Offer More Choices Beyond Employer-Based Health Insurance
• Make Insurance More Portable
• Encourage And Expand The Benefits Of Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) For Families

Plans to Ensure Care for Higher Risk Patients:

• John McCain’s Plan Cares For The Traditionally Uninsurable-You may visit the website for further details, but it offers sketchy details on how he wants to accomplish this.
• Work With States To Establish A Guaranteed Access Plan
• Work With States To Establish A Guaranteed Access Plan

Lowering Healthcare Costs

• CHEAPER DRUGS: Lowering Drug Prices
• CHRONIC DISEASE: Providing Quality, Cheaper Care For Chronic Disease
• COORDINATED CARE: Promoting Coordinated Care
• GREATER ACCESS AND CONVENIENCE: Expanding Access To Health Care
• There is far more. . . I encourage you to visit his website for the complete plan he has laid out and his views on how to reform healthcare

Barak Obama’s Plan for Healthcare:

• Plan to Cover Uninsured Americans
• National Health Insurance Exchange
• Reducing Costs of Catastrophic Illnesses for Employers and Their Employees
• Helping Patients
• Ensuring Providers Deliver Quality Care
• Lowering Costs Through Investment in Electronic Health Information Technology Systems
• Lowering Costs by Increasing Competition in the Insurance and Drug Markets
• Advance the Biomedical Research Field
• Fight AIDS Worldwide
• Support Americans with Disabilities
• Again, the website continues in far greater detail than space makes reasonable to put here.

Hillary Clinton’s Plan for Healthcare:

 *** (Each candidate’s page was laid out differently.  My goal was to bring out their major points & give you the resources to review each candidate more thoroughly.  It would be a book, not a page, to mention each candidate’s complete views on this topic.  The layout is not in any way intended to endorse any of the candidates.)