Daily News Updates - Health Insurance News

Nominees’ Update on Health Insurance, Pt.6 – Mr. Obama’s latest stance.

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Mr. Obama’s health insurance plan is very different. The opposite of causing people to ‘slug-it-out’ in the open market to get ‘affordable’ health insurance, Mr. Obama promotes a "national health insurance program to allow individuals and small businesses to buy affordable health care.” His main focus is to provide for all Americans. This is reflected in the July 6 Parade Magazine interview where both candidates were asked to comment on patriotism. Mr. Obama’s was entitled Sacrifice for the Common good. In this he states, “True patriotism also means a willingness to sacrifice for our common good.” Mr. McCain’s was entitled A Cause Greater than Self-interest. In it, he states, “To love one’s country is to love one’s countrymen”. Such is the primary quest of Mr. Obama’s plan – to ‘sacrifice for the common good’ by providing ‘affordable’ health insurance to all of our ‘countrymen’.

To do this, Obama is proposing a plan that is like the one that our federal employees enjoy. It would require federal funding collected from those employers who choose not to provide health insurance benefits to their workers, as well as by shifting existing tax structures in a way as to not overburden the already financially depressed sector. He would also create provision for those changing jobs to not lose their health insurance coverage. Also, he would lower current employer-based premiums, by providing a shield to protect providers from liabilities of extreme and catastrophic situations. Several cost control measures would be instituted, like greater efficiencies in the medical industry and lower drug prices. The lower drug costs would be achieved by “allowing patients to buy drugs from abroad and letting the government negotiate for lower prices,” as the Reuters article phrases it.