Daily News Updates - Health Insurance News

Tide of Health Care, Pt.3 – What is the proposal and how will it be implemented?

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The basic tenets of Mr. Obama’s health insurance reform are listed below:

• · Require medium to large businesses to either provide health insurance for their employees or else to contribute to the cost. Small businesses will be handled individually, some will be subsidized and others exempted.
•  · Require that all children have health insurance coverage.
•  · Expand Medicaid and the SCHIP (State Children's Health Insurance Program).
•  · Create a National Health Insurance Exchange to provide a risk-sharing pool. He will give people a choice between competing private or public health insurance plans.

The nonpartisan tax analysis group, the Tax Policy Center projects that , if fully implemented, the president-elect's plan would reduce the ten-year projected 67 million figure of Americans having no health insurance by 33 million people over that duration. The projected cost would run about $1.6 trillion.

A large part of this plan would be funded by allowing President Bush's obscene tax cuts to expire in 2010. These tax cuts only effect those people with wages more than $250,000 a year. The cuts were originally opposed by Mr. McCain and were not even requested by the beneficiaries. As explained by Mr. O’s chief domestic advisor, David Cutler, the Obama camp believes that these funds could be put to better use toward health insurance by the larger American population in greater need. Estate taxes will be kept at the at 2009 levels, however.

No further specifics are available at this time. Also, especially due to the current catestrophy unleased by Wall Street, no timetable on these reforms has been established. At this time, Mr. O has not yet explained if he would proceed with a full-blown health insurance/care reform package at first or just try for incremental change.

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November News...