Daily News Updates - Health Insurance News

Speaking Up On Obama’s Plan, Pt.2 – Mr. Obama gives us good detail.

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Mr. McCain calls that “fining them”, but Mr. McCain doesn’t seem to embrace ‘social wisdom’. He still believes de-regulation is best. As to the amount of the assessment, that hasn’t been fixed yet. Mr. O’s plan is very detailed and draws heavily from lessons learned with the Massachusetts ‘universal health insurance/care model’. That model found 6% of payroll to be to low because employers were saving money by dropping out and just paying the assessment. 7% of payroll is being tried now, and results are expected soon. Small businesses will be exempt from this mandate if it would cause them too much of a hardship.

Under the Obama plan, there would be a mandate to provide health insurance coverage for all children. A tax credit would be provided for low- and middle-income families to help them buy this coverage. His plan would also create a national health program. This would be similar to Medicare and provide coverage for the millions of uninsured Americans and small businesses. He would also establish a ‘national health insurance exchange’ to offer adequate and affordable coverage choices for those groups.

In several speeches, Mr. Obama tells us “If you don’t have health insurance, you’re going to be able to buy the same kind of insurance that Senator McCain and I enjoy as federal employees.”

Critics argue that funding this will cost too much. Mr. O’s cost projection for his health insurance plan between $50 billion to $65 billion. He has earmarked much of the revenue to come from an expiring and obscene Bush tax cut for Americans earning more that $250,000. Additionally, some of the funding is to be regained from less direct methods like disease prevention and early treatment. These savings can be very substantial, but they take a little time to recoup. One other method, also endorsed by Mr. McCain, is to greatly improve medical efficiency. With modern electronic medical records technology, it is expected that substantial moneys can be saved by preventing expensive duplication of treatments as well as better communication, which would allow for fewer mistakes in the industry.

Continued…
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