Obama Edging Clinton in Primaries

With Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in a virtual dead heat for the Democratic presidential nomination, the March 4 primaries in Texas and Ohio will be decisive. “If she loses either Texas or Ohio, this thing is done,” James Carville, a Clinton adviser, said on CNN last night.

As democratic voters prepare to choose, one key difference in the two senators' campaign platforms is health care. Both candidates say they will revamp the $2.1 trillion industry by making government sponsored insurance and private insurance more available. Both candidates also want to lower the cost of prescription drugs and want to prohibit private insurers from denying coverage based on medical history. However, Clinton’s plan makes insurance mandatory for everyone. Obama’s plan only requires coverage for children.

It might seem like a negligible difference but a recent study by M.I.T. health care economist Jonathan Gruber concludes that mandates play a major role in getting the uninsured coverage. A plan without mandates would cover 23 million of those currently uninsured, at a taxpayer cost of $102 billion per year, summarizes economist Paul Krugman in the New York Times. “An otherwise identical plan with mandates would cover 45 million of the uninsured – essentially everyone – at a taxpayer cost of $124 billion,” states Krugman. Do the math and the cost per person is $4,400 under the Obama plan and $2,700 under Clinton’s.

Until the industry is overhauled people who do not have employer sponsored plans or Medicaid should consider buying an individual policy. The process can be intimidating and expensive. That leads many young people – especially those who rarely use medical service - to forgo health insurance altogether. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, more than 15 million Americans between the ages of 18 and 34 are now living without medical coverage.