"His plan is designed "with sugar and sticks” to push you to negotiate on your own with the friendly insurance companies. He'll give you a tax credit ”$2,500 for an individual, $5,000 for a family” to help you pay the price. And he'll revoke the tax exemption for any health benefits your employer provides. Under his plan, those benefits will be taxed as income. McCain says this will reduce our health care expenditures. He might be right. His preferred option ”health saving accounts” generally feature low monthly payments and very high deductibles. People tend to insure themselves against catastrophe and take a chance on routine health care.

"On average, health savings accounts will work pretty well if you are young and healthy and lucky. But if you are sick, if you have suffered serious illnesses in the past, if you have what insurers call a "pre-existing condition," or if you are older and at higher risk, you're in trouble. For many, insurance won't be available at any price. That's why Elizabeth Edwards noted that, neither she nor McCain would be eligible for coverage since both have struggled with cancer. Many more will find adequate coverage unaffordable. Others will have to wrestle with choosing between paying to see a doctor or buying the weekly groceries. You'll be more "sensitive to price," but you might not think that a good thing.

"McCain extols the benefits of private health insurance, but he's never had to negotiate with insurance companies. He's been on government-provided health care virtually his entire life. He was raised on military health care, as the son of an admiral. He then went to the Naval Academy and to the military. A year after leaving the military, he was headed to the Congress and enjoying the best government-supplied health care of all.

And he is correct, McCain the millionaire's plan is awful.

Here is what Borosage writes about Obama's plan: "For the nine of 10 voters that have some kind of health insurance at work, the contrast will be clear. Obama will give them a choice between the health care they have and being able to buy into a public plan, something like Medicare. McCain will tax their employer based health care, and give them a break to negotiate their own deal with the insurance companies. At the same time, he will liberate the insurance companies from the state-based regulations that have provided some protection for consumers."

But there already is a public plan, like Medicare.  It's called HR 676, also known as Medicare for All which I've written about before, for example here, here, here, and here.  Why should Obama re-invent the wheel?

As for the nine of 10 voters who have some kind of health insurance at work, the know what is happening to workplace health care coverage that Health Care for America Now and Mr. Borosage are unaware. 

Marie Cocco at Truthdig explains: "The United States needs nothing less than a new social compact that recognizes what most workers already know: that employers no longer are a reliable source for health insurance or pensions; that workers lack the bargaining power once provided by strong unions and nothing has replaced it."

Since employer offered health coverage is becoming an unreliable source, HR 676 is now, more than ever, a Medicare for All whose time has arrived.