New Committee Assignment Allows McCain to Play a Role in Health Care Reform

Arizona Sen. John McCain may not get the chance to implement the health care reform plan he envisioned, but he intends to be a part of the solution that comes out of Washington.  

McCain now sits on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee where he will work with Committee Chairman Sen. Ted Kennedy and ranking republican Sen. Orin Hatch of Utah to help draft the health care reform bill put forth by the Senate.

Some points of the healthcare plan McCain proposed during his presidential bid differed sharply from then Democrat nominee Barack Obama. McCain supported tax credits for people to buy their own insurance, while Obama wants to expand the current system.  But both plans sought the same outcome: get more people insured.

“They both took the position that everyone should have access to health insurance,” said Moffitt, director of the Center for Health Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation.    

And that starting point bodes well for hospitals executives, industry analysts and the American Health Insurance Plans say, who agree that the more people who have health care insurance, the less medical bad debt there will be.

Moffitt doesn’t expect the parties to agree on some proposals, such as the creation of a government health plan they fear would compete with private health plans.  Nor does he expect bipartisan support for the creation of a health board -- proposed by Health Secretary Sen. Tom Daschle -- that makes decisions about treatment patients receive.