The health care plan proposed by Barrack Obama has three core elements. Firstly, it seeks to provide affordable and portable health to the average American. Secondly, it is expected to stem the rising health care costs, ultimately saving the average household about 2,500 dollars a year. Thirdly, it will have a department dedicated to promoting public health. Analysts are saying that the plan has bits borrowed from Bill Clinton’s 1994 plan, John Kerry’s 2004 plan, and a bit from the Commonwealth Fund. Its main departure from traditional American health plans is bringing in more federal control to the plan’s execution, hence reducing the effect of a decentralized system. The ultimate goal is to provide the same levels of health care to the average citizen as provided to federal and Congress employees (Obama).
The part played by the Federal authority is expected to expand and influence several non-traditional niches of the health care system. There will be significant, direct competition with private firms on the National Health Insurance Exchange. In line with this, employers will be obliged to cater to the health costs of their employees either by providing a comprehensive insurance cover or by paying taxes to aid in government facilitation of health care. Parents will also be expected to ensure that their children have health insurance covers. The Federal government would also get directly involved with the daily running of the health machinery, even determining the superiority of medical procedures and processes. (Robert)
An additional health plan is expected to buffer up the existing Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP. This new plan will cater to those individuals who can not access employer-based coverage, like self-employed people and members of small businesses. All these are expected to benefit from increased disease prevention and management, training, and health care coordination. Needy people will receive subsidies from the Federal government to help them buy health coverage. (Staff).
Technology features prominently in Obama’s health care plan. There’s the vision to reduce paperwork for all medical staff, while at the same time increasing productivity and efficiency. To achieve this, all personnel and institutions contracted to participate in the health plan will have to meet certain technological compliance standards. (Peter) This vision, coming from the most wired president-in-waiting ever, can be assumed to be more than an idle ambition.
Some people have challenged Obama’s health care plan, deeming it ultimately detrimental to the existing balance in American medicine (Paul). Some say that having federal participation in both making the laws and playing in the market will give private health firms a distinct disadvantage. For example, having taxpayers subsidize government risks is a unique advantage that private firms don’t enjoy. There’s also the fact that the tilted power brokerage will influence decisions made by the medical board of directors- at the obvious expense of private health firms. With all these in place, there’s a real possibility that private participation in the health schemes will gradually reduce, and the government could eventually have a monopoly on health care. The real losers would be the average citizen, for having lost market options.
Other detractors have cited the fact that increased government rigor would cripple innovation in the health departments. Having to comply with a rigorous set of standards will hinder the scope for experimentation and variability that an open market provides. All in all hence, until Obama’s health care plan is put into play, it’s hard to determine whether it will improve things or not.
Works cited
- Obama: Plan for a healthy America.
- Paul Krugman: Clinton, Obama, Insurance. The New York Times. 2008.
- Peter Nicholas and Janet Hook: Barack Obama’s Stimulus Plan Gains Steam. Chicago Tribune. 2008.
- Robert E. Moffit: The Obama Health Care Plan.
- Staff writers: Doctors Back Barack Obama on Health Care Plan. Political Affairs Magazine, 2008.