President Bush's plan to address the issue of the uninsured by providing tax credits and health savings accounts will not help "a great majority of families unable to afford insurance," especially working families with "breadwinners" who have jobs that do not offer medical coverage or who have been laid off, columnist Paul Krugman writes in a New York Times opinion piece (Krugman, New York Times, 7/16). Bush's two-part plan would cost about $90.5 billion over 10 years and would extend health coverage to an estimated 2.1 million people. One element of Bush's plan would provide tax credits to people who do not have employer-sponsored health coverage to help them obtain coverage individually. The other element of his plan would provide tax breaks to people who buy high-deductible health insurance plans and deposit money in health savings accounts to pay for health care not covered by their health plans. In contrast, the plan by presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) would cost $653 billion over 10 years and expand coverage to an estimated 26.7 million people. Kerry has said that he would finance his health care proposal by repealing Bush's tax cuts for families whose annual incomes exceed $200,000. The plan would offer tax credits to people who purchase private health insurance and would transfer to the federal government from private businesses a share of the costs of treating catastrophic illnesses (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 7/8). Bush's tax credit plan would not "help a great deal of families unable to afford health insurance, Krugman writes, noting that the average health plan premium for a family of four participating in employer-sponsored health coverage was $9,000 last year. The proposed tax credit would be $3,000 for a family of four with an annual income of $25,000 and $1,714 for a family of four with an income of $40,000, according to Krugman. He adds that the benefit of HSAs "would be small for those families most at risk of losing health insurance," saying that "many experts" believe HSAs will "actually increase the number of uninsured." The "key" side consequence of HSAs would be a "reduced incentive" for companies to provide employees with low premiums or, for that matter, any health coverage at all, Krugman writes. He concludes that Bush cannot "win [the] debate" over the uninsured because his plan would extend health coverage to "fewer than 5% of the uninsured" and could eventually increase the number of families without health coverage (New York Times, 7/16).