Election day is only 4 weeks away, so it's no wonder that both Democrats and Republicans are getting pretty nasty with each other over a variety of issues, including affordable health insurance.

According to Boston.com, the gloves are off, and each candidate is assuring the American people that the other is out to ruin their health and their finances, and that his own affordable health insurance policy is the ticket to helping us stay well at a price we'll love.

Well, not to rain on anybody's parade, but both plans have potential downfalls that could now become even more complicated since we've promised to bail out Wall Street to the tune of $800 billion.

McCain is offering to give individuals and families a tax credit so they can purchase their own insurance on the individual market. The problem with that? There are concerns that the $5,000 he plans to give families won't cover it - after all it costs $12,000 a year now to cover the average family.

And the individual market is known to be more expensive, since it doesn't offer insurance agencies the same benefits as a group policy wherein more people stay healthy than get sick. This could leave anyone with a pre-existing condition out in the cold.

Obama is promising affordable health insurance to everyone by controlling the insurance market, making it illegal to discriminate based on pre-existing conditions, making coverage for kids mandatory, and subsidizing coverage for those who can't afford it.

The problem? It's potentially affordable health insurance for the masses, and not so affordable to the federal government, who could end up paying billions for subsidized coverage. And that means that in the end we're still paying for it - along with everything else these days.

In both cases the insurance that we end up with may or may not work out, and will probably need years of work to get off and running without the numerous glitches and problems associates with something this huge.

But in both cases, it will be worth it if some of those 47 million uninsured, and the millions of under-insured, can get some relief.