I recently went to the doctor.  He gave me two x-rays and a shot.  I paid a $20 copay to the receptionist and went along my merry way.  This is life on a decent employer-based health care plan: My wife’s.

Prior to getting married two months ago, I had what I refer to as “crap insurance.”  It was an individual health care plan that I paid for out of my own pocket.  My monthly bill was high.  The deductible was high.  My choice of doctors was limited.  Rather than paying a set copay when receiving medical care, I would get bills in the mail which sometimes made sense and sometimes did not.  Misunderstandings/disagreements with the insurance company over what was covered and what was not happened multiple times.  Here’s the best part: only generic drugs were covered.  “Hey, what are the odds I’ll ever need a non-generic drug?” I thought when I decided to save 50 bucks on my monthly bill.  Do you want to take a guess?  This is life on a crap insurance policy.  And to be fair, this is the life of a relatively healthy youngish person on a crap insurance policy.

I’ve been on a number of these plans from different carriers throughout my time as an inconsistently employed artistic type.  They are all for the birds.  And guess what?  With John McCain, this is the direction health care will be headed in.

Most experts agree that under McCain’s healthcare plan, more and more people will be moved from employer-based plans to individual ones like the one I’ve described above.  But surely, you say, with McCain’s tax credit, people enrolling in those individual plans will be able to afford better policies than the crappy one you describe?  Perhaps.  But will they?  Will a family who is tight on cash really spend the extra money for an expensive plan, when they have the option of pocketing hundreds of dollars a month and purchasing crap insurance instead?  Probably not.  Some free-market Republicans will call this a cost-cutting solution.  I call it giving bad health care to the poor people.  What happens when someone in that family gets sick?  What happens when non-generic drugs are required?  What happens when the restrictions of this limited crap insurance plan start costing that family thousands of dollars?

McCain likes to argue that his health care plan gives people “choice,” but this is misleading.  McCain wants you to hear the word “choice” and think “doctor choice.”  But this isn’t about doctor choice. Yes, we all want to be able to see the doctors we choose, but nobody is trying to take that choice away from us.  What McCain is really saying is that he wants to give Americans the choice of having a crap insurance policy instead of a good one.  That’s the “choice” on the table.

It may seem like a decent proposal to some.  Perhaps some younger healthier folks would rather buy bottom-of-the-barrel coverage and spend their extra money on other things.  That works out great as long as everyone stays healthy.

Does this thinking sound familiar?

It’s a perfect plan.  So long as . . .

a) everyone stays healthy
b) housing prices continue to rise indefinitely
c) nothing ever goes wrong

Deja vu.  Are you scared yet?  And this is only the tip of the iceburg when it comes to the wrongheadedness of McCain’s policy.  I haven’t even mentioned people with pre-existing conditions.  What a nightmare they will have, trying to find a decent individual insurance policy that covers them — nevermind one they can afford!  I also haven’t mentioned how crap insurance policies will take the focus away from prevention and wellness.  And let’s not forget how much more power we wilI be placing in the hands of the insurance companies who set the rates for these individual policies.  Do we honestly think they will be responsible and resist ganging up together, raising their prices, lowering their benefits, and generally acting like one unified evil conglomerate if their individual insurance plans become the biggest show in town?

No thanks.  Could there be a worse philosophy for this moment?  I love my wife’s new employer-based health care plan.  For all my increased benefits, I am also paying a fraction of the price for my monthly premium.  I don’t want to go back to crap insurance. I am scared that a McCain presidency will lead the entire country in that direction.

In case you needed yet another reason to vote Democrat . . .

(Sorry to stay on my soapbox.  I need to fit in all my ranting before the election.)