Obama's healthcare plan

In the previous post, I listed out the health-care plan of John McCain. Now I shall list out Obama's health-care plan.


Obama's health-care plan.


Obama wants a national health insurance similar to the ones our politicians are getting to be available to the public. Like the congress people, they would be able to choose whether they want the national plan or not.

Obama wants to make health-care plan portable.

Obama wants to set up a National Health Insurance Exchange. This is a body where the government would rate the health insurance industry and allow certain insurance companies, as per the government sees fit, to sell insurance to the public. It is like an insurance company having the stamp of approval of the government.

Obama wants employers that do not give their employees sufficient health coverage to contribute to the national plan.

Obama wants parents to cover their children's health-care plan till the 'children' are 25.

Obama wants to expand SCHIP.

Obama wants to let states carry on their current health-care plans if they meet the minimum criteria of the national health care plan that Obama is offering.

Obama wants to order federal re-insurance for employers so that they do not go bankrupt if an employee of that company suffers a setback.

Obama wants to support disease management plans.

Obama wants to coordinate and integrate care.

Obama wants to make all health-care costs transparent.

Obama wants to align incentives for excellence. He wants doctors to be rewarded for the good work they do and not just for the amount of work that they do.

Obama wants to make it mandatory for hospitals to report preventive medical errors and support the hospital and doctors in not making the errors happen again.

Obama wants to have continuous comparative reviews and research.

Obama wants to reform medical malpractice while preserving patients rights. This is something like the bill of rights for both doctors and patients.

Obama wants to implement IT to lower the cost of health-care in America.

Obama wants to increase competition to lower costs of health-care.

Obama wants to allow drug re-importation.

Obama wants to increase use of generics. He also wants to go after drug companies that pay generic drug makers not to enter the market to keep their profit margin high.

Obama wants to lower Medicare prescription drug benefit costs.

Obama wants to get more employers to the work site health promotion programs.

Obama wants to combat child obesity. Measures include getting 100% of elementary schools to have physical education and ensure that there is not too much fat in school lunches.

Obama wants to help primary care providers and public health-care professionals in many issues.



My analysis


A few things stand out in Obama's health care plan. Firstly, it again shows his hard handed approach in going about to solve problems. A good and funny example is that of combating child obesity. He demands that all kids get Physical Education everyday!

Secondly, quite a number of McCain's point can be found in Obama's health care plan too. Check that one out too to see the similarities.

I am not happy that these candidates do not state the facts and the figures in the form of an accounting table and not state what are the negatives in their plan. That is so important in helping people make their minds.

The last point I can make is that one can see that Obama really did do his research in coming up with this plan. He must have studied the way 3M provides health-care for her employees and Jamie Oliver's movement to re-do school lunches in UK.

He has taken what works and implemented it in his health-care plan. For that Obama should really be commended for it.

On a personal note, it am still not sure if universal health-care is the best for US. So even though Obama has a lot of minor points that I like, I am still reserved about universal health-care unless he shows us the $$.


What I like about Obama's health care plan

Like McCain's plan, I prefer a portable health-care plan. The US needs to catch up with this as it is already happening around the world. Since both candidates support this, I hope to see this in place by 2012.

Co-ordinating and integrating health-care, using IT in health-care administration and making health-care transparent are some things that we obviously needs to do. I would be shocked if it is not already in place. McCain is promising the same things too.

Aligning incentives for excellence makes some sense. It happens in every industry so why not for the medical sector? That being said, every life saved by a doctor is an excellent job, are we going to reward all of them? Still a good thing though.

Making hospital report preventive medical errors is also common sense to me. It is done in a company so why not for the medical industry. After-all it is the industry of life and death. I would not be surprised if this is already practiced but better be safe than sorry.

Comparative review and research can only help us.

Reforming medical mal-practice laws are a really good idea. This is a part of Obama's plan that has an edge over McCain's. Clearly stating where the doctor and patient stand is a great way to incorporate work.

Increasing use of generics is a great idea. Going after people that pay them not to come into the market, is even better. I think it is just plain wrong for pharmaceutical companies to be able to do that. It is a disgrace to competition. Can we imagine if Pentium paid AMD not to release their latest chip so that Pentium can sell its latest at a higher price?

Isn't it amazing that one department of the government can negotiate to bring down the price of drugs but another branch can't? Obama wants to bring down costs incurred by Medicare drug benefits by making the government negotiate the price of the drugs. This is already done by the VA and drugs there cost the taxpayer 20% less. Why haven't the government thought about this earlier. What the hell is congress doing? Sleeping?

I agree with the steps to cut down on child obesity. It is rampant and needs to be stopped.

Another class act in the Obama plan is the way he is solving the dwindling primary care providers and public health-care professionals. I always been an admirer of this policy that is popular in the East. The biggest issues facing the doctors and the nurses is that their tuition loans cost too much. Making them bonded to the hospitals is a great way of cutting down government cost and lessen the worries of doctors and nurses.


What I do not like about Obama's health plan


If parents want to cover kids, fine. But when they start working, they should pay their own health-care. It is not fair for parents to pay for health insurances of people under the age of 25 that are already working.

Getting employers to the work site health promotion programs is really not a good thing. Starbucks and 3M can do so as it has been their company culture for so many years. To get others to follow suit would increase their costs dramatically and also generally increase the cost of goods.


Things that I am on the edge of

We are already spending so much on health care. By giving people a national health insurance plan, wouldn't that skyrocket American expenses? Are we giving more with our left hand that we are receiving with our right.

On what basis are we going to brand and grade insurance companies? How is the government going to defend against corruption and lobbyists with the National Health Insurance Exchange?

How much is re-insurance for employers going to cost the tax-payer?

SCHIP already cost the taxpayer more than $200 billion. How much more would it cost if it is expanded?

What are the regulations tied to re-importation?


Conclusion

Even though Obama's plan has got more positives than negatives, glaring fiscal questions need to be answered. Furthermore, I am not yet convinced that universal health-care, a central theme in this policy would be great for the country.

Obama's plan is not bad, but not that much better than McCain's shorter plan as it fails to disclose the costs that would incur with his plan.

What do you think? Whose plan do you think is better?