In the closing days of the election, we will attempt to cover as many issues as possible and the candidates’ plans regarding pressing issues. One issue that is pressing for many American families is health care. Increasing costs and decreasing benefits puts the squeeze on the budgets of families across the country. Economic difficulties, including layoffs, bring this issue into the forefront as well.
Each candidate has a distinctly different approach to the future of health care in the United States. Barack Obama’s plan lies in between health care run by the government and the current system, which many agree is greed run amok within the insurance companies.
One of the big things Obama’s plan would do for families is to require that health insurance companies cover pre existing conditions. Currently, companies often argue with insured individuals over a recent diagnosis and suggest it may be pre existing. Often the goal is to deny benefits because the more claims they can deny, the more profit the company will realize.
This happens even when the condition was not diagnosed prior to the person being insured with that company. Obama has frequently talked about his mother, lying in her death bed and fighting on the phone with the insurance company. Her story is unfortunately not unique in American health care.
What else Obama’s plan will do for your family depends on whether or not you have health insurance and are happy with your current coverage. For families with health insurance they like, nothing will change. Obama claims we will have lower premiums as reforms are initiated that are intended to reduce health care costs.
These reforms include things such as allowing imported drugs to be purchased at lower rates, increasing competition, promoting preventative care to avoid higher costs later and covering the uninsured. This is a big part of your current health care premiums, costing as much as $1000 per year for each family plan in the country, much like you pay for uninsured motorists in your auto insurance plan.
If you don’t have health insurance, the Obama plan is designed to help you get it. Employers will receive tax credits for offering health insurance to their employees, which will help cover the cost of offering benefits. In addition, the plan includes the creation of a National Health Insurance Exchange. This would offer a range of plans from private providers, as well as the plan offered to Congress. Tax credits would help families with no health insurance through their employers to by into the plan.
Note: McCain said in a debate that Obama would fine small businesses for not providing health care. Obama said there is no fine for small businesses. I haven’t found any evidence of McCain’s claims and it seems that he has backed off that idea for now. Obama has said he will require large employers to “offer meaningful coverage or make a meaningful contribution to the cost of quality health coverage for their employees.” If they choose not to do so, they will be required to kick in for the National fund to help the uninsured get coverage.
I was really surprised to hear this. For some reason, I thought large businesses were already required to do so. I thought that is why employers, such as WalMart, limit the number of hours to avoid covering them on insurance. In cases such as this, it only makes sense to make them pay into the system, since they are unwilling to do the right thing on their own.