Welfare Watch - June 25, 2009 - Obama's Health Care Reform Proposal

President Obama is proposing a Healthcare Reform package that is projected to change how healthcare is rendered in this country.  The implications for all children will be significant.  There are more than 9 million uninsured children in America.  More than 2,200 children are born uninsured every day.  Uninsured medical costs impact every American.  Everyone agrees that some type of healthcare reform is needed.  It is the details of that reform that is being debated.

The consensus is that reform will happen this year.  President Obama has submitted his proposal.  An overview of that proposal is found below:

1. Investing in electronic health information system - Investing $10 billion dollars to build a technological infrastructure for the health care system and create an all online database
2. Improve preventative medicine through disease management programs and coordinated and integrated care - Ideally to reduce the impact of chronic diseases which affect 133 million Americans
3. Accurate reporting from health care providers regarding their costs and quality of care, including medical errors, nurse to patient ratio, etc.
4. Reforming medical malpractice insurance to keep it affordable for all doctors while still protecting patient’s rights
5. Increasing competition between insurance and pharmaceutical companies to decrease prices
6. Allow Medicare to negotiate for cheaper drug prices
7. Reducing the impact of catastrophic illness for employers and employees - The government will reimburse employers who pay a significant portion for catastrophic illnesses.
8. Creating the National Health Insurance Exchange to provide an affordable health care plan for uninsured Americans and those unhappy with their health care plans

The Exchange will have the following features: 

• Comprehensive benefits - The benefit package will be similar to that offered through the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), the program through which Members of Congress get their own health care. Plans will include coverage of all essential medical services, including preventive, maternity and mental health care.
• Affordable premiums, co-pays and deductibles - Participants will be charged fair premiums and minimal co-pays for deductibles for preventive services.
• Simplified paperwork - The plan will simplify paperwork for providers and will increase savings to the system overall.
• Easy enrollment - All Exchange health insurance plans will be simple to enroll in and provide ready access to coverage.
• Portability and choice - Participants will be able to move from job to job without changing or jeopardizing their health care coverage.
• Quality and efficiency - Participating hospitals and providers that participate in the new public plan will be required to collect and report data to ensure that standards for health care quality, health information technology and administration are being met.

9. Eliminates “pre existing conditions” to expand eligibility for private insurance
10. Give small businesses and families a tax credit for medical costs & contributions to insurance plans 

• They will also create a new Small Business Health Tax Credit to provide small businesses with a refundable tax credit of up to 50 percent on premiums paid by small businesses on behalf of their employees. To be eligible for the credit, small businesses will have to offer a quality health plan to all of their employees and cover a meaningful share of the cost of employee health premiums.  
• Large employers that do not offer meaningful coverage or make a meaningful contribution to the cost of quality health coverage for their employees will be required to contribute a percentage of payroll toward the costs of the national plan. Small businesses will be exempt from this requirement.

11. Requires coverage for all children
12. Expansion of Medicaid and SCHIP programs
13. Allows states to continue existing programs as long as they meet basic federal standards

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Welfare Watch, an email newsletter of the
Georgia Association of Homes
and Services for Children
as a public service.
http://www.gahsc.org
                            Normer Adams, Editor
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