Health Matters in the 2008 Election

Health Issues 101

SCHIP and HSAs ... AHPs and block grants ... tax credits and report cards. Huh? The candidates are talking a lot about health care, but how much of what they're saying do you actually understand? WebMD's Washington correspondent, Todd Zwillich, helps you make sense of it all with this handy campaign crib sheet.

Association Health Plans

Association Health Plans (AHPs) allow small businesses to band together under the auspices of trade groups for the purposes of buying health coverage. That offers a potential advantage by giving those businesses more clout to buy cheaper coverage for employees. AHPs have been around for years, but they've gotten more and more controversial over the last decade. Republicans, especially President Bush, strongly favor a plan exempting AHPs from state laws guaranteeing minimum coverage and benefits. That would let AHPs operate more freely nationwide. But Democrats have blocked the plan because of fears it would undermine state consumer protections and give insurers a way to insure only the healthiest people.

Block Grant

Block grants are a way for the federal government to help cities or states pay for health services. Instead of setting rules in Washington, policy makers have increasingly resorted to simply sending money in the form of block grants to states or local governments to help pay for medical services, mental health care, infrastructure, and research.

Drug Importation

Americans pay the highest prices in the world for prescription medicines. That's why many policy makers want to make it legal to import drugs from other industrialized countries, where they typically cost less than half of U.S. prices. Though it is technically illegal, individuals are permitted to buy small amounts of prescription drugs from other countries. Bills allowing big distributors and pharmacies to buy imports have passed Congress with bipartisan support over the last few years. But the Bush administration has resisted implementing the plan, saying it could open up U.S. markets to unsafe drugs from overseas. Pharmaceutical manufacturers oppose importation and have successfully lobbied to weaken or stop proposals in Congress. Meanwhile, many cities and states have moved ahead with their own importation plans.

Electronic Medical Records

Experts on health quality say one of the best ways to help avoid costly and dangerous medical mistakes is to convert cumbersome paper records to electronic form. Computerized records can make sharing between offices faster and more efficient, take away the pitfalls of misread handwriting, and even help scientists access health data more quickly and easily. Many in the government agree, and more and more incentives are popping up to encourage health providers to move to electronic formats. Still, there's been some trouble getting everyone to agree on a common format for the records, and also convincing doctors and hospitals to spend big money for new systems. Some integrated health systems, like the Veterans Administration, already have fully functional electronic medical records systems.

FEHBP

This stands for the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, which handles health coverage for about 5 million civilian federal employees, including members of Congress. Many private insurance plans compete to offer coverage paid for the government through FEHBP. Some policy makers have proposed allowing persons outside the government to buy into FEHBP as a way to give more people access to affordable medical coverage.

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Health Matters in the 2008 Election

The content contained in WebMD's "Health Matters in the 2008 Election" section is for informational purposes only. WebMD does not endorse any specific political party, candidate, committee, idea or belief.

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