President Obama’s Plan for Affordable Health Insurance
One would imagine that living in the industrialized nation of the United States would almost guarantee affordable health care at a standard far above the rest of the world. Unfortunately, this is not the case.
There are 29 other countries with a higher life expectancy than Americans, and there are 38 who have lower rates of infant mortality. Even worse, almost 50 million Americans are without health care, and many others lack affordable health insurance.
President-Elect Barack Obama not only has a vision of a nation without such disparities, but he has a three-fold plan to achieve these transformations. Barack Obama deems the following to be crucial to his ideas:
1. First, affordable and accessible health care should be available to all Americans. There are several ways that Obama plans to succeed in this. Obama believes that prescription medication is more expensive than it needs to be. He proposes that by importing medications from other countries, as well as utilizing generic medications in public programs, the out of pocket expense for those in need of prescriptions would be drastically reduced.
2. Second, Barack Obama would like to see a health care system that is up to date with the available modern technologies. He feels that by doing this, there will be a reduced quantity of medical errors that could potentially be fatal to patients. Research has shown that there are ways in which costs can be lowered, while simultaneously improving the medical care that patients receive.
3. Lastly, the President-Elect would like to see more emphasis on preventative measures. Too often, by the time an individual has been diagnosed with a chronic disease, it is already costing the American people millions and millions of dollars. Many of these chronic diseases can be prevented. With Obama’s plan, preventative measures, such as cancer screenings, will be a requirement.
Despite his repeated refutations, many individuals believe that Obama’s plan for affordable health care is synonymous with “socialized medicine.” On the contrary, this is not the case at all.
As he has stated time after time, those who are satisfied with their current medical insurance coverage will not have to change anything; they will still be able to go to the same doctors, clinics and hospitals. The change would benefit the insured, as their yearly cost would go down by as much as $2,500. Those who don’t have coverage, however, would now have access to affordable health insurance.
Hopefully, time, energy, and effort will prove his plan to be very successful in the near future.
Dante Lee
http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/president-obamas-plan-for-affordable-health-insurance-704028.html
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April 8th, 2010 at 9:58 pm
Can you please make a summary about Obama's health plan?
US President Barack Obama has unveiled his plan to overhaul the nation’s health care system by providing cover for 31 million uninsured.
The proposals, which mould aspects from two bills that have passed Congress, have been published on the internet as promised 72 hours before a key ‘summit’ with Republican leaders who have sought to block passage and derail Obama’s agenda.
The plan is widely seen as an attempt to transform his top priority health care plan from a political liability into a trump card to outwit Republicans who have built their resurgence on blanket opposition.
Obama aimed to tap into a new supply of political support arising from the recent decision by Anthem Blue Cross of California to raise premiums by as much as 39 per cent from March 1.
His plan on Monday proposes going further than the existing House and Senate bills and giving the federal government new powers to block what is deemed excessive rate increases by health insurance companies.
It grants the federal health and human services secretary the power to review and block such increases and calls for the creation of a new Health Insurance Rate Authority made up of health industry experts.
‘The president’s proposal strengthens this policy by ensuring that, if a rate increase is unreasonable and unjustified, health insurers must lower premiums, provide rebates, or take other actions to make premiums affordable.
‘A new Health Insurance Rate Authority will be created to provide needed oversight at the federal level and help states determine how rate review will be enforced and monitor insurance market behaviour,’ it said.
Obama claimed his reforms would reduce the US budget deficit ‘by $US100 billion ($A111.1 billion) over the next 10 years – and about $US1 trillion ($A1.1 trillion) over the second decade – by cutting government overspending and reining in waste, fraud and abuse.’
Thursday’s live, televised meeting at Blair House, across the street from the White House, could be Obama’s last chance to pass the plan, which has stalled in Congress with painful consequences for his political authority.
The talks may also dictate battle lines for mid-term congressional elections in November and have deep implications for Obama’s slowed presidency.
Obama may gain politically whichever way the meeting turns out, a factor that has some Republicans smelling a trap.
If his foes compromise on radically different versions of health care, the president will likely get the credit, and finally get his signature reform through Congress.
But if they simply block him, Obama can say Republicans thwarted the bipartisanship that voters across party lines tell pollsters they want to see.
Publication of the plan was a significant moment, with Obama finally taking ownership of the health reform legislation, as pundits have criticised him for allowing Democratic lawmakers to dictate the content of his plan.
‘What the president is trying to do with the February 25 meeting is to reframe the issue, to show that he is working across party lines,’ said Steven Smith, a professor at Washington University, St Louis.
Obama threw down the gauntlet to his foes at a town hall meeting on Friday in Las Vegas.
‘The Republicans say they have got a better way of doing it. I want them to put it on the table… Show me what you got.’
Polls show health reform is not the top concern of most Americans in the aftermath of the economic crisis, with unemployment close to 10 per cent.
Republicans gained the power to thwart Obama’s plans indefinitely last month by capturing a Massachusetts Senate seat to break the Democratic Party’s 60-seat filibuster-proof majority.
They are now calling on the White House to shelve a bid to pass the health care legislation through ‘reconciliation’, a process used for budget and deficit bills that requires only 50 votes.
April 9th, 2010 at 3:00 am
Sounds like you have one
The question is – do you believe it?
I have yet to see a government health care program that did what it was said it was going to do at the price they said it was going to cost.
In every case since the "Great Society" of the 1960’s, the price has been much higher, the benefit much less and the number of people covered fewer than planned for.
I see no reason the believe that this bill and this program will break that string of disappointments.
References :
April 9th, 2010 at 3:02 am
I don’t think Albert Einstein could have understood it, let alone summarized that plan.
References :
I tried to read it.