When critiques of Senator McCain’s healthcare plan come from his usual opponents across the aisle, that’s one thing. When they come from the leading trade groups for American business four weeks out from election day, it’s quite another.
 
That’s why jaws dropped yesterday when the New York Times reported that “American business, typically a Republican cheerleader, is decidedly lukewarm about Senator John McCain’s proposal to overhaul the health care system by revamping the tax treatment of health benefits.”

According the NYT, “the officials, with organizations like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable and the National Federation of Independent Business, predicted in recent interviews that the McCain plan, which eliminates the exclusion of health benefits from income taxes, would accelerate the erosion of employer-sponsored health insurance and do little to reduce the number of uninsured from 45 million.”
 
“To some in the business community, this is very discomforting,” said R. Bruce Josten, executive vice president for government affairs at the Chamber of Commerce. “The private marketplace, in my opinion, is ill prepared today with an infrastructure for an individual-based health insurance system.”
 
Coming on the heels of news Monday that Senator McCain’s health care plan also includes huge cuts in healthcare funding for seniors and people with disabilities (Medicare and Medicaid), it’s making for quite a week of revelations about Senator McCain and health care. We’ll try to keep up!

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/07/us/politics/07health.html

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