Originally Published:20080501.

The news over the last several months has been dominated by the Presidential election. It's worth reviewing Sens. McCain's, Clinton's and Obama's positions on healthcare and taxes and what these positions could mean for U.S. companies.

Healthcare

Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) has argued strongly for a cap on healthcare premiums. She also is in favor of setting a limit on requiring what individuals should pay for their premiums and does not support varying the limit by income.

How does she propose to pay for her plans to improve the nation's healthcare system? She has been vocal about raising the excise tax on tobacco products, among other possibilities. Sen. Clinton also supports universal healthcare coverage.

In contrast, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) would create a National Health Insurance Exchange to aid those who want to buy a private insurance plan. The Exchange would serve as a watchdog group by making rules and standards for participating insurance plans. Obama also supports reducing the costs of catastrophic illnesses for employers and their employees. His plan would reimburse employer health plans for a portion of the catastrophic costs they incur if they guarantee these savings would lower the cost of workers' premiums.

According to the The Washington Post, Obama's health-insurance proposals would cost $110 billion, half of which would be paid by increasing taxes on those with incomes above $250,000. Clinton offers a similar approach to pay for her health care plan.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), on the other hand, intends to address the healthcare issue with a free-market approach, while giving individuals the right to make choices for themselves. He supports providing all taxpayers with a $2,500 tax credit to increase incentives for insurance coverage. McCain also supports allowing people to get insurance through any organization or association they choose.

Under his plan, these policies would be available to small businesses and the self-employed. He also supports giving veterans the freedom to choose to carry their U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs dollars to a provider that gives them good healthcare.

Taxes

Clinton is in favor of reforming the alternative minimum tax (AMT) but has not provided many details on her position. She supports taxing certain offshore nonqualified deferred compensation and would provide tax benefits to energyintensive industries and extend tax credits for ethanol and biodiesel. She also supports providing tax credits up to $10,000 for purchasing plug-in hybrid vehicles.

Obama has not taken a position on the AMI However, at a speech in midMarch in New York, he emphasized tax cuts for the middle class, which Clinton does not endorse. The Wall Street Journal also states that Obama's economic advisers fear that the next financial crisis could be a credit card issue, as many Americans have turned to cred- it cards as a way to buy food, gasoline and other necessities.

In contrast, McCain supports a simpler tax code and favors repealing the AMT altogether. At a political action conference on February 7, he supported making President Bush's tax cuts permanent, as well as reducing the corporate tax rate and abolishing the AMT, which currently impacts 25 million American families.

McCain also is in favor of making it harder to raise taxes and believes that it should require a 3/5 majority vote (60 percent) in Congress to do so.