A couple days ago, I was walking down the street carrying a stack of McCain signs, along with stickers, buttons, leftovers from dinner and an overloaded backpack. You would think even the most hateful liberal could keep from unleashing any verbal attack due to my obvious struggle, but of course that was too much to expect. Some girl started yelling after me about abortion and how if she gets raped or is a victim of incest, she wants to have an abortion — don’t I think she should be able to?

Of course I do. And so does Sen. John McCain. It was at that moment that I realized how uninformed these hateful offenders are. I am sure that girl has many reasons to vote for Barack Obama, but why can’t she accept that I have my reasons to feel differently, and just leave me alone? Especially when she clearly has no idea what she is talking about.

One of the issues I feel most students, if not most Americans, are not well informed on is health care. I’ve visited the websites of both candidates, and I have to say, neither was very helpful. I wanted to know where the money was coming from, and what the positive and negative effects were going to be. After doing a lot of further research, I finally found some lucid answers.

McCain’s health care reform has been acknowledged as the more radical of the two options by both sides of the aisle. The McCain health care plan is based on the fact that the current health care system, where employers choose and pay for their employees’ plans, is outdated and does not work. This system began during World War II, when the government encouraged businesses to offer health incentives to attract workers. It was never meant to last 60 years. McCain says it’s time to overturn this system, and I couldn’t agree more.

McCain’s plan calls for employers to stop purchasing health care for their employees and to add the dollars previously spent on health care onto their paychecks. This means that this sum would be added to the income on which the employee is taxed, thus raising revenue but not raising taxes. This newly earned revenue is then doled into tax credits (which we’ve all heard about a gazillion times) which are returned to the taxpayer. This system treats citizens of high and low incomes equally, and is beneficial for all. This is best proven by example. Take a family with an income of $100,000. The average care plan for this family would run about $12,000. The company typically covers $9,000 of this sum. This $9,000 is added to the family’s income, and they are taxed on approximately a third of it according to this particular income bracket. The government then returns $5,000 to the family in tax credits, thus resulting in an extra $2,000 with which to purchase insurance. This tax credit is paid for by the revenue created by taxing the extra amount of income. For wealthier citizens, the amount added to the “pot” would be substantial, while for lower income families, the amount added to the pot would pale in comparison to what they would receive back. Rich or poor, your health care would cost the same, and the government would treat you just like everyone else — no more tax subsidies for the rich. When compared to the current system, families and individuals will all come out even at the very least, and in many cases will come out with additional funds, which can then be put into health savings accounts.

So, at the bare minimum, if prices of health care plans stay the same, families get the same plan they had from their employer and come out even. The great thing is, though, they would then have complete control of their plans. This means they would have the power to “cut the pork” and create a plan that best suits their needs, removing benefits they would never use. This would thus lower what they pay. In addition, once insurance companies have to cater to individuals instead of selling plans with unnecessary benefits in bulk to employers, insurance companies will be forced to create more flexible and attractive plans to lure customers. Finally, McCain wants to create competition among insurance companies across state lines, further increasing competition and driving down prices.

So, to reiterate, McCain’s plan will not increase taxes or force families to pay more out of pocket for their health care plans. It simply rearranges where money is coming from in order to give the consumer the maximum amount of power over his or her health. When I tell friends about this aspect of McCain’s plan, they often ask questions about those with pre-existing conditions or those who don’t currently have employer-paid insurance. To this, I always respond that you need to think about the current health care system as a broken-down car. What I just described is analogous to replacing the engine. Other fixes are clearly necessary to drive the car, but you have to start with the basics. (OK, I’m a girl and I’m in the biological sciences … bear with me here). Obviously, many other kinds of reform are necessary to keep the car running. But McCain’s plan starts with the fundamental basis and works its way up. Of course, he has other plans to take care of these other issues, and they are things most Americans, including Sen. Obama, agree on. But while Obama plans to build on the current system, leaving the employer-paid insurance plans in place and increasing government-offered insurance, McCain seeks to overturn the whole system and start over anew, in a way that will have the least amount of negative effects and require the least amount of government invention.

Katie Nix (nix@wisc.edu) is state chair of Students for John McCain.