CLINTON	OBAMA	McCAIN	Single Payer
Universal Coverage	Promised; estimate 45 million additional covered	Promised: estimate 23 Millionadditional insured; Encourages states to develop own plans	No information; Possible 8 million more insured	Yes
Individual Mandate (people required to buy insurance)	Yes	Only for children; Says mandates are punitive and unenforceable	No	Automatic enrollment in public plan
Medicaid/Schipp expansion	Yes	Parents/children up to 250% FPL; childless adults up to 100%	No	N/A
Employer Play or Pay	Yes	Yes, in markets where insufficient competition to offer variety of plans	No	Workers and employers  pay into a single fund.
Private Insurance Markets	Keep plans if desired; Options are to buy into FEHBP or a public program similar to Medicare; comprehensive benefits	New Group National Health Insurance Exchange to help people buy private plans with same benefits as Congress; Public plan options to families without coverage and small businesses.	Private plans available with portability across state lines	Limited to coverage of benefits not in public plan
Drugs	Negotiate prices in Medicare part D and new plan	Negotiate prices in Medicare part D and new plan; increase generics; allow reimportation	Increase generics and permit re-importation	Negotiate pricing. All necessary drugs covered
Subsidies for low-medium income	Tax Credit to premium > X% of income	Sliding scale premium; offers subsidies; reinsurance for catastrophic coverage	Tax credit of $2500 for individuals and $5000 for families	Not needed
Regulation of Insurance Markets	Yes; guaranteed issue, community rating, and minimum"loss ratios"	Yes; guaranteed issue, subsidies where needed;  portability; disclosure of % of premium paid for claims	No guaranteed issue or community rating; Allow insurance to be sold across state lines and business to purchase through any organization or association	Not needed
Changes to employer tax exemption	Yes; caps tax exclusion for incomes > $250,000	No	Unclear	No
	Clinton	Obama	McCain	Single Payer
Quality and Efficiency Measures	Improve Information Technology; Pay for Performance; chronic disease management; malpractice reform; transparency; preventive services, malpractice reform	Improve Information Technology; Pay for Performance; chronic disease management; malpractice reform; transparency; Malpractice reform	Improve Information Technology; Pay for Performance; chronic disease management; malpractice reform; transparency; Malpractice reform	Federal Office of Quality Control; Eliminates inefficiences of multiple payers
Costs	. Candidate claims a cost of $102 Bill. Does not address out of pocket costs; Others estimate it costs taxpayers $124 billion per year	Candidate claims a cost of $50-65 Bill. Does not address out of pocket costs. Others estimate it costs taxpayers $102 billion per year, and covers half of ininsured.	No information; Promotes competition in insurance markets and providers which increases cost shifting; Promotes innovative delivery sytems; experiments by states;	Expected to reduce overall costs even with elimnation of co-pays and deductibles
Funding Source	Not clear; Relies on cost savings: roll back tax cuts to the rich.	Not clear; Relies on cost savings: roll back tax cuts to the rich.	Relies on cost containment measures to make insurance affordable	Income taxes
Administratively Simple	Slightly better; enrollment will be complicated.	Slightly better; enrollment will be complicated	Worse than current system; fragmentation of care and admin waste remain problems	Much better than current
Pools Risks Broadly	Slightly better	Slightly better	No change from current system	Better
Comments	Heavy reliance on funding through savings from information technology, reduced Medicare HMO payments, negotiated drug prices; Guranteed issue and community rating will cause increase in premiums or deductibles.	Cannot get universal coverage without some kind of mandate; overlooks out of pocket costs; Guranteed issue and community rating will cause increase in premiums or deductibles.	Heavy reliance on consumer responsibility, tax credits and information technology. Will have minimal reduction in uninsusred.	Truly universal; Has best impact on admin waste; Least hassle for beneficiary;
Affordability	Premiums may be affordable but co-pays and deductibles likely to go up with increased regulation	Premiums may be affordable but co-pays and deductibles likely to go up with increased regulation	Major shifting of costs to consumer	Savings of >$300 billion passed on to consumer.