Health Care Spin

We all know that McCain and Obama have very different health care plans- McCain proposes a market-based system that relies on tax incentives and Obama proposes new subsidies to expand private insurance coverage to foster competition. Each candidate has made attacks on his opponent’s plan that are either false or misleading- One Obama ad falsely characterizes McCain’s plan as the "largest middle-class tax increase in history” and McCain falsely claims that Obama’s plan "will rob 50 million employees of their health coverage." Who are we to believe?I checked out FactCheck.org and found some helpful information.
In short, McCain's plan would allow those who choose to buy insurance on their own to use a health insurance tax credit to pay for their health coverage, with payment going directly from the government to the insurance company. Employees would then pay federal income tax on the value of those benefits, but the tax credit would offset those taxes and companies would not be taxed. He also wants to expand health savings accounts so that any money left over from the tax credit could be put into such an account where it could be used for approved medical expenses.
Obama's plan would create a national system of competing, federally-approved private insurance policies and a public plan through which individuals and small businesses could purchase coverage. He also wants to forbid insurance companies from denying coverage because of preexisting conditions and require that children have insurance, offer tax credits to low-income families, and expand coverage under Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program.
Independent studies generally agree on one thing – Obama's plan would cover more people however, they differ widely on how much each plan would cost. One study said that McCain's plan would cover somewhat fewer people than Obama's, but at a much higher cost; however, another study by tax policy analysts predicted that Obama’s plan would cover far more people than McCain's, at a moderately higher cost. One study estimated that McCain's plan would cut the number of uninsured Americans by 21 million, while another put the number at only 1 million. The estimates may vary so widely because both candidates are vague about important details.