Whether it's in the ads, the debates, or in campaign speeches, today's presidential hopefuls say they're going to "tell you the truth" about their opponents.

But when it comes to the individual health insurance market, that may or may not apply.

While Obama claims that McCain's medical insurance plan would force consumers to navigate an expensive and complicated individual health insurance market, McCain promises that Obama's plan would lead to a health care system about as efficient and enjoyable as a trip to the DMV.

Meanwhile, in the midst of all this name-calling and conjecture, MSN Health finds that today's employers are offering health care plans that neither doctors nor patients understand, leading to millions of under-insured people.

It's true that the individual health insurance market is currently more expensive than the group insurance market - after all, in a group plan an insurance agency will likely make more money, since not everyone will get sick.

But with the rising costs of health care it's clear that group health insurance plans may be on their way out, and in that case, someone will need to help consumers make smart decisions about individual health insurance coverage, like what type of coverage is best, what it should cover, and how much your deductible should be.

And right now neither doctors, nor insurance agents, nor politicians appear to be in a position to fill that role.

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.

In the midst of a tremendous economic crisis, most states are struggling to get federal funding that would help to provide affordable health insurance to their citizens.

But in Massachusetts the opposite has happened; according to The New York Times, Massachusetts' famous universal, affordable health insurance plan for state citizens was protected by federal financial support in the form of a waiver that allows the state to boost spending on health care.

The state's subsidized coverage plan for those who don't make enough to purchase medical insurance, but make too much to qualify for Medicaid, will be saved by these budget extensions that allow the state to spend up to $21.2 billion on the program over the next three years, an increase of $4.3 billion over the initial three-year period.

The state's plan, enacted in 2006, makes health care coverage the law, punishable with fines for those who don't obtain coverage. In order to make this possible, more affordable health insurance options have been subsidized for those who can't afford coverage on their own, and it was made illegal to turn consumers away based on pre-established conditions.

As a result, Massachusetts has the lowest rate of the uninsured in the country.

Lawmakers in the state see the gift of the waivers as proof that the federal government approves of the Massachusetts health care experiment, and hope that taxes on tobacco, improvements to the organization of their medical system, and raising money from employers that don't offer coverage to employees will help to minimize the costs of implementing universal health coverage in the state.