There doesn’t seem to be provisions in McCain’s plan to deal with cost, federal Medicare reimbursement or coordination of care for the sickest patients — all issues that Mayo Clinic officials said were important during a meeting Monday with local leaders.

In addition, McCain’s high deductible plans would discourage prevention — unless preventive care were exempt from the deductibles. Studies have shown that if preventive care is not covered, many people will not utilize it. If that happens on a widespread basis, then conditions might go undiagnosed until they were advanced enough to cost more than they would have otherwise.

His plan is not likely to substantially decrease the number of Americans who don’t have insurance.

During a community meeting at the Radisson Hotel on Monday, Mayo CEO Dr. Denis Cortese said Medicare routinely pays the most money to health care institutions that get the worst results. McCain’s plan does not acknowledge this problem, either.

We can’t afford to tinker around the edges of the health care issue. Seeking to end employer coverage without offering an alternative other than the private insurance market would put the sickest people at risk. While McCain proposes government-run high-risk plans for those with chronic conditions, those plans are generally very costly.

We need to make sure that more people have access to health insurance. McCain’s plan just preserves a slightly worse version of the status quo.

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