Obama's Health Care Plan - the easy outline

Via Liquid Composition

General Regulation:
• Basic Health insurance will be required, like auto insurance is now
• Businesses will be required to either provide health care or 'chip in'
• 95% of small businesses (based on profit threshold) will be exempt from the requirement to participate
• There will be a hardship waiver for those who still can't afford coverage

Those with insurance:
• Neither employers nor individuals will be required to change plans.
• Illegal to deny coverage based on pre-existing condition
• Illegal to drop or alter coverage once you get sick
• No cap on coverage in a year or lifetime
• Cap (limit) on out-of-pocket expenses
• Insurance companies will be required to cover routine exams such as mammograms and colonoscopies at no additional charge

Those without insurance:
• Affordable coverage via exchange/marketplace which will take effect in 4 years
• Insurance companies will want to compete because of millions of potential new customers
• Those who still can't afford will be given tax credits determined on amount of need
• Current pre-existing conditions will be offered low-cost insurance immediately if they become sick (McCain's plan)

Rumor control
• No death panels
• Illegal immigrants will not be given health care
• No federal dollars used to fund abortions

The Public Option
• Public option preferred, but any option that guarantees some form of choice will be considered, including co-ops or trigger option
• Rationale for public option is to hold insurance companies accountable
• Public option would only be for those without insurance - those with insurance would not be required to change
• It's projected less than 5% of people would sign up for the public option
• Public option expected to be entirely self-sufficient - no taxpayer dollars, but with reduced overhead and salaries, should still be able to provide lower cost options
• Public option expected to augment, rather than replace private system - much like public universities augment, but do not replace private universities

Paying for it
• With savings, projected 900 billion over 10 years  (less than Iraq & Afghan wars and less than tax cuts for wealthy started by Bush)
• Must add 0 to deficit over lifetime
• No money borrowed from Medicare
• No reduction in Medicare benefits
• Provision requires spending cuts if promised savings don't materialize (sounds like trigger option)
• Reduce waste in current system including Medicare and Medicaid: fraud, unwarranted subsidies to insurance companies, communication, etc
• Create independent commission of doctors & medical experts charged with identifying additional waste and encourage best practices modeled after high performing health systems
• Revenues from drug and insurance companies: insurance companies charged a fee for their most expensive policies
• Tort reform to stop frivolous medical malpractice lawsuits (Republican proposal)

General Regulation:
• Basic Health insurance will be required, like auto insurance is now
• Businesses will be required to either provide health care or 'chip in'
• 95% of small businesses (based on profit threshold) will be exempt from the requirement to participate
• There will be a hardship waiver for those who still can't afford coverage

Those with insurance:
• Neither employers nor individuals will be required to change plans.
• Illegal to deny coverage based on pre-existing condition
• Illegal to drop or alter coverage once you get sick
• No cap on coverage in a year or lifetime
• Cap (limit) on out-of-pocket expenses
• Insurance companies will be required to cover routine exams such as mammograms and colonoscopies at no additional charge

Those without insurance:
• Affordable coverage via exchange/marketplace which will take effect in 4 years
• Insurance companies will want to compete because of millions of potential new customers
• Those who still can't afford will be given tax credits determined on amount of need
• Current pre-existing conditions will be offered low-cost insurance immediately if they become sick (McCain's plan)

Rumor control
• No death panels
• Illegal immigrants will not be given health care
• No federal dollars used to fund abortions

The Public Option
• Public option preferred, but any option that guarantees some form of choice will be considered, including co-ops or trigger option
• Rationale for public option is to hold insurance companies accountable
• Public option would only be for those without insurance - those with insurance would not be required to change
• It's projected less than 5% of people would sign up for the public option
• Public option expected to be entirely self-sufficient - no taxpayer dollars, but with reduced overhead and salaries, should still be able to provide lower cost options
• Public option expected to augment, rather than replace private system - much like public universities augment, but do not replace private universities

Paying for it
• With savings, projected 900 billion over 10 years  (less than Iraq & Afghan wars and less than tax cuts for wealthy started by Bush)
• Must add 0 to deficit over lifetime
• No money borrowed from Medicare
• No reduction in Medicare benefits
• Provision requires spending cuts if promised savings don't materialize (sounds like trigger option)
• Reduce waste in current system including Medicare and Medicaid: fraud, unwarranted subsidies to insurance companies, communication, etc
• Create independent commission of doctors & medical experts charged with identifying additional waste and encourage best practices modeled after high performing health systems
• Revenues from drug and insurance companies: insurance companies charged a fee for their most expensive policies
• Tort reform to stop frivolous medical malpractice lawsuits (Republican proposal)

Comments

[jacksmith]

Why A Strong Public Option Is Essential - By jacksmith — Working Class

Robert Reich explains the pubic option: http://bit.ly/19tHF4

It's not just because more than two thirds of the American people want a single payer health care system. And if they cant have a single payer system 77% of all Americans want a strong government-run public option on day one (86% of democrats, 75% of independents, and 72% republicans). Basically everyone.

It's not just because according to a new AARP POLL: 86 percent of seniors want universal healthcare security for All, including 93% of Democrats, 87% of Independents, and 78% of Republicans. With 79% of seniors supporting creating a new strong Government-run public option plan, available immediately. Including 89% of Democrats, 80% of Independents, and 61% of Republicans, STUNNING!!

It's not just because it will lower cost. Because a strong public option will dramatically lower cost for everyone. And dramatically improved the quality of care everyone receives in America and around the World. Rich, middle class, and poor a like.

It's not just because it will save trillions of dollars and prevent the needless deaths of millions more of YOU, caused by a rush to profit by the DISGRACEFUL, GREED DRIVEN, PRIVATE FOR PROFIT MEDICAL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX!

It's not just because every expert in every field, including economist, and Nobel laureates all agree that free market based healthcare systems don't work. Never have and never will. The US has the only truly free market based healthcare system in the World. And as you all know now, IT IS A DISASTER!

It's not just because providing or denying medically necessary care for profit motivations is wrong. Because it is WRONG! It's professionally, ethically, and morally REPUGNANT!, Animalistic, VILE and EVIL.

THE REASON THE PUBLIC OPTION IS ESSENTIAL:

The public option is ESSENTIAL because over 200 million of you are trapped in the forest of the wolves. Which is the forest of the DISGRACEFUL, GREED DRIVEN, PRIVATE FOR PROFIT MEDICAL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX! With no way out except through needless inhumane suffering, and DEATH. While the wolves tear at your flesh, and rip you limb from lib. Then feast on your lifeless bodies like a dead carcase for transplant parts.

At the most vulnerable times of your lives (when you were sick and hurting), millions of you have had to fight and loose cruel, but heroic battles. Fighting against the big guns of the DISGRACEFUL, GREED DRIVEN, PRIVATE FOR PROFIT MEDICAL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX! in the forest of the wolves. All because you have no place else to go. You have no other CHOICE!

But the PUBLIC OPTION will give you someplace safe to go. And it will give us someplace safe to take you. The public option will be your refugium (your refuge). Where the wolves cannot get at you when your down, hurting, and vulnerable. Where everyone who needs it can find rest, security, comfort and the care they need. Protected by the BIG GUNS of We The People Of The United States. THE MOST POWERFUL PEOPLE AND COUNTRY ON EARTH.

This is why it is so critical that we do not lead another 50 million vulnerable, uninsured Americans into the forest of the wolves, without the protections of a Strong Government-run public option. We The People Of The United States MUST NOT LET THAT HAPPEN to any more of our fellow Americans. If healthcare reform does not contain a strong public option on day one. YOU MUST! KILL IT. Or you will do far more harm than good. And millions more will die needlessly. Rich, middle class, and poor a like.

To those who would continue to obstruct good and true healthcare reform for the American people, and who seek to trap millions more vulnerable Americans in the forest of the wolves. We will continue to fight you. We are prepared to wage all out war against you, and will eagerly DESTROY! you. Time...is...UP! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! No Co-op's! No Triggers!

Healthcare reform can be the GREATEST! Accomplishment of our time and century. A time when future generations may say of us, that we were all, AMERICAS GREATEST GENERATIONS.

BUT WE MUST ACT!

I therefore call on all my fellow Americans and the peoples of the World. To join us in this fight so that we may finish becoming the better America that we aspire to be for everyone.

SPREAD THE WORD!

I have been privileged to be witness as many of you fought, and struggled to take your first breath, and your last breath on this earth. Rich, middle class, and poor a like. Life is precious.

Whatever the cost. WE! MUST SUCCEED.

God Bless You My Fellow Human Beings

jacksmith — Working Class

Senator Bernie Sanders on healthcare (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSM8t_cLZgk&feature=player_embedded)

[olddeadmeat]

The goal of universal of healthcare is great. Can we make it work, not just for this generation but sustainably? Dunno.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but we want lots of things that we can't afford or we are not willing to pay for - that's why lots of Americans have lost their homes and more will be losing them this fall and next year.

The problem with the public option is MEDICARE - the currently existing public option for all senior adults.

Is it effective? To some extent, yes.

Is it expensive? Big YES, and going broke quickly for a huge host of reasons that are not being addressed.

Is it satisfactory? No. It is NOT sustainable in its present form.

If the American gov't can't fix Medicare, on what basis can we justify any expectation that the U.S. gov't can successfully administer an even bigger program? Neither Bush nor Obama are reassuring examples of gov't leadership.

It doesn't help that the President said his plan won't cost a penny and NO ONE who isn't working for the administration already believes him.

When our leaders are willing to get real and dig in and candidly talk about all the benefits and risks, then maybe it's worth considering.

But we need gov't reform as a precursor to any new programs or we are inviting those programs to fail.

Do you want to raise American hopes with a year or two of a public option before it goes bankrupt, takes the nation with it and leaves us all just as bad off as before but with no hope?

Sorry jacksmith, we gotta clean house before we think about adding on.

[Dane]

Nice to know that i am correct on my points, sorry i do not want this. I do not want this at all

[David Baker]

"• Basic Health insurance will be required, like auto insurance is now"

Yeah that sounds just great, right? No. We are forced to buy insurance by law because we wish to drive on government made and maintained roads. Also we are jeopardizing the rights of others if we are not prepared to reimburse another in the event of negligence.

Making it a crime for someone who makes the choice as a free man, to decline paying for health insurance, is a gross violation of that man's rights. This nation has gone absolutely insane with laws that punish most of the average persons actions. Making us all susceptible to prosecution at the whim of those with the power.

I don't know about any one else. Speaking for myself, I have no king. No man nor government rules me. The purpose of the government plain and simple, is to protect my rights from enemies foreign and domestic. If you want the government to give you security it comes at the cost of slavery. Anything given by government is not a right. It is payment for obedient slaves. Payment that can be denied if strict compliance is not achieved.

[Josh B]

One problem.

The health care mandate is NOT like auto insurance.

Yes, auto insurance is required by law. But only if you wish to own a car. Millions do not. Public transportation is used exclusively by millions of people in big cities across the nation. And if I as a citizen disagree with a law that forces me to buy a product (auto insurance) from a corporation I can refuse to do so by simply not owning a car or non-oping my vehicle and letting it sit in my garage.

As a citizen I cannot do this with the Health Care mandate. I cannot choose to not have a body. Thus the two are very very different. One is mandatory one is optional. One makes sense (seeing as auto accidents often involve injury or damage to a second party), and one does not since in America it is cheaper to cremate someone than it is to treat them.

[workplace incidents]

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[soft cialis]

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[Matt]

@Jack Smith

Glad to see that one (of very few I imagine) cognitive abilities is to copy and paste other peoples (bad) ideas.

First off: I've never heard any of those statistics before, and, even if they are true, it still is no reason whatsoever to endorse "universal healthcare". If 51% of people want to kill the other 49% that does not make it a good idea. If 88% of people support themselves jumping off high bridges it does not make it a good idea. The fact is 100% of people want a free lunch and exactly 0% will ever get it. Nothing is free, and the reason so many people (using your statistics) seem to support universal healthcare is because they believe it will be at no or reduced cost to them (which is just bologna).

Beside your post making tons of unsubstantiated claims (it will lower cost, improved the quality of care, save trillions of dollars and prevent the needless deaths of millions) it also makes claims that are downright wrong (America has a free-market in healthcare? I wish). Every single one of the arguments raised by that post could be used to support the government take over of ANY INDUSTRY. Why not bread? People need bread? Why don't we have Universal Car-care? What about Universal House maintenance? Are these things not vital as well? Aren't these run by "greed" driven capitalists? Honestly, just reading "medical industrial complex" made me laugh. Put "industrial complex" after anything and it sounds bad, but it is really just silly.

" free market based healthcare systems don't work. Never have and never will. " This claim was the most facetious of all. Never worked? You know, in the early 1900's there was a problem with health care in the united states. It was too cheap. Doctors were complaining about not making enough Money. Don't worry the government "fixed" it and now we have our wonderful system of half regulation/half pseudo-enterprise that you all mistake for the free market.

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