McCain and Obama Health Policies:
Costs and Coverage Compared
An independent comparative analysis of the candidate's potential health care reform policies presented by John Sheils, Senior Vice President The Lewin Group
On October 8, 2008, The Lewin Group released an in-depth assessment of the health care reform policies proposed by the 2008 presidential nominees. The analysis incorporated publicly available information as well as information provided by the campaigns and from interviews with McCain and Obama health policy advisors. The report details how much these policies would cost if implemented, who will be affected, and more.
New chart available: (as mentioned in The Wall Street Journal Oct. 23)
For more information, contact: Gregory Butera, at (703) 269-5548 or gregory.butera@lewin.com.
About the Lewin Group
The Lewin Group is a premier national health care and human services consulting firm with more than 35 years’ experience finding answers and solving problems for leading organizations in the public, nonprofit, and private sectors. The firm has a long history of providing objective, independent health care and human services policy analysis and consulting. The Lewin Group has considerable experience analyzing the impact of health reform initiatives on major stakeholder groups, including employers, providers, governments and consumers. Lewin analyses primarily are based upon a model of the US health care system called the Health Benefits Simulation Model (HBSM), which has been continually refined since 1989, when it was used to estimate the cost of alternative universal coverage proposals for the Bipartisan Congressional Commission on Health Care. Since then, the model has been used to analyze a broad range of health reform proposals at the state and federal levels.
About the Authors
John Sheils is a nationally known expert on designing and evaluating health coverage reform proposals. Mr. Sheils joined Lewin in 1980 and has established the firm as one of the leading independent sources of information and analysis on the financial impacts of major health reform initiatives. He has testified before congressional committees and often works directly with members of Congress in evaluating and developing health reform initiatives.
Mr. Sheils was assisted by Mr. Randall Haught. Mr. Haught has worked for over 15 years with Mr. Sheils in the development and refinement of HBSM. He has extensive experience in estimating the impacts of health reform initiatives on health spending.