A Check-Up on Obama’s Health Care Plan

Posted in Health Care , Health Insurance

April 17th, 2009

An honest check-up on the United States’ health care plan yields a grim diagnosis: it’s failing. Over the last two years, 1 in every 3 Americans was at some point without health insurance – that’s 86.7 million Americans. With more Americans losing their health insurance thanks to unemployment, there needs to be an affordable alternative to group policy health insurance.

The Doctors’ orders? Change. The catch phrase and promise of President Barack Obama, a “change” is certainly in order for America’s healthcare plan – preferably in the form of affordable, accessible health care for all Americans that builds upon our existing network of hospitals, doctors, providers and plans.

The remedy? President Obama has proposed a $634 billion plan to provide health care coverage to all Americans; the proposal also looks to cut government health spending, and if successful, should pay for health care reform over the next 10 years and save the average family $2,500 a year in health-care costs. Strict cuts are aimed at decreasing overall health care spending, while simultaneously raising money to create near-universal health care.

One of the most contentious and hotly debated issues in the President’s agenda, the possibility of a public health care option that would compete with private health insurance has the country divided. While many democrats laud the possibility and declare it a necessity, many Republicans remain skeptical and fear it as a step towards socialized medicine.

What could it cure? By offering consumers an alternate choice to private care, a public health care plan could provide health insurance to the millions who cannot afford a private plan. Moreover, it could make strides to keep private plans honest while curbing the relentless growth in health care premiums and soaring medical costs. As part of a broader plan that would also improve employer-provided health care and Medicaid, it may leave doctors and hospitals with no other option than to start accepting lower reimbursements than they win with private insurers, allowing it to charge lower premiums that would certainly attract and retain more individuals seeking out health care.

Potential side-affects? While some worry it may lower salaries for doctors and other medical related fields, this possibility is fairly low. However, to subsidize the plan, tax cuts to the top 2% of the population would be in order.

While only one element of President Obama’s health care plan, a public health care plan could provide a healthy measuring-stick by which to gauge the success of private plans while helping keep them in check. If it helps provide affordable, quality health insurance to the 47 million Americans without health insurance, it’s certainly deserving of a “clinical trial.”