Obama trying to rally

Obama trying to rally support in favour of healthcare reforms

Finsofts

US President Barack Obama is trying to rally support in favour of his healthcare reforms. Democrats too have been lobbying hard for its passage. But Republicans have said that they will not allow the Federal government’s meddling in healthcare system.

As President, Barack Obama has initiated a series of actions intended to reform health care. The full elements in his plan were outlined in a document entitled Barack Obama and Joe Biden’s plan to lower health care costs and ensure affordable,accessible health coverage for all.

The plan aims to "improve efficiency and lower costs in the health care system by adopting state-of-the-art health information technology systems; by ensuring that patients receive and providers deliver the best possible care, including prevention and chronic disease management services; reforming the market structure to increase competition; and offering federal reinsurance to employers to help ensure that unexpected or catastrophic illnesses do not make health insurance unaffordable or out of reach for businesses and their employees."

The plan includes implementing guaranteed eligibility for affordable health care for all Americans, paid for by insurance reform, reducing costs, removing patent protection for pharmaceuticals, and requiring employers to either furnish meaningful coverage or contribute to a new public plan. He would provide for mandatory health care insurance for children.

Obama has promised to “bring down premiums by $2,500 for the typical family.” His advisers have said that the $2,500 premium reduction includes, in addition to direct premium savings, the average family's share of the reduction in employer-paid health insurance premiums and the reduction in the cost of government health programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.

Ken Thorpe of Emory University has issued estimates that support Obama's proposal. Other health analysts, such as Joe Antos of the American Enterprise Institute, Karen Davis of the Commonwealth Fund and Jonathan B. Oberlander of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill expressed skepticism that the Obama plan would achieve the stated level of cost savings.

With his healthcare reform, President Obama wants to give the public the choice of a public sector competitor in the private health insurance market. An article in The Economist said that the inclusion of a public sector option could trigger insurance opposition which, in conjunction with employer health-care provider opposition, could kill health care reform.

President Barack Obama is lobbying hard for universal coverage and end of medical red tape, calling an overhaul of America's ailing health care system the most important issue for the nation's long-term economic stability.

Health care reform should mean all Americans can get coverage while allowing doctors to heal patients instead of being bureaucrats, he told the doctors' advocacy organization American Medical Association in Chicago recently.

He acknowledged the concerns of doctors that reforms could bring a government-heavy system that would dictate how patients get treated and how much physicians get paid, CNN reported. But he called such thinking wrong.

Obama urged all players-doctors, patients, insurance companies, drug companies and the government-to contribute to a workable system that would provide coverage for the 46 million uninsured Americans while reducing costs and increasing efficiency.

'You did not enter this profession to be bean-counters and paper-pushers,' Obama said to a standing ovation at the conference in Chicago, Illinois. 'You entered this profession to be healers, and that's what our health care system should let you be.'

Obama has made health care reform a top priority of his administration, and Congress will consider at least three proposals in coming weeks to address an issue that deeply divides Democrats and Republicans.

His plan includes reducing tax deductions for high-income Americans. Another funding idea under consideration is taxing the medical benefits of employer-provided health coverage, which the Obama administration opposes but has not ruled out entirely.

The AMA represents a powerful constituency of US physicians, and its support is considered important in getting a bill through Congress. The AMA acknowledges the need for reforms but opposes any public option plan that forces physicians to participate, expands the fiscally challenged Medicare programme for senior citizens or pays Medicare rates.

A proposal from Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy, a longtime health care reform proponent, includes a public option as one choice for consumers. Republican leaders adamantly oppose any public option, complaining it would lead to an eventual government takeover of health care similar to the cradle-to-grave coverage in Canada and England.

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