"What's yours is mine, comrade...Oh who am I kidding? I can't out-Stalin Hillary..."
Posted on 05/29/2007 1:48:51 PM PDT by Jean S
Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama (Ill.) outlined a detailed plan in Iowa City, Iowa, Tuesday to provide universal health coverage and to reduce the cost of medical care.
Speaking less than a week after his arch-rival for the presidency, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), laid out her healthcare plans, Obama acknowledged that reforming the vast and complex healthcare system would be difficult, but said, “We are not a country that allows major challenges to go unsolved and unaddressed while our people suffer needlessly,” according to his prepared remarks.
In addition to promising universal coverage, Obama said that his plan would save a “typical family” $2,500 a year in healthcare spending.
The proposal would partially be financed by not extending tax cuts scheduled to expire in several years. In addition, Obama said that his plan would reduce spending in the healthcare system. He did not offer an estimate of the cost of his plan.
Obama also reiterated his vow that every American would have access to private or government-sponsored health benefits by the end of his first term if he were elected president.
People who currently are covered would be able to keep what they have, Obama said. “If you already have health insurance, the only thing that will change for you under this plan is the amount of money you will spend on premiums. That will be less,” he said.
The candidate blamed the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries for rising healthcare costs and the failure of past reform efforts.
Describing healthcare as a right, Obama said, “I believe that no amount of industry profiteering and lobbying should stand in the way of that right any longer. …
“We have talked, tinkered, and let this crisis fester for decades. … [C]andidates offer up detailed healthcare plans with great fanfare and promise, only to see them crushed under the weight of Washington politics and drug and insurance industry lobbying once the campaign is over,” Obama said.
“It’s time to bring together businesses, the medical community and members of both parties around a comprehensive solution to this crisis, and it’s time to let the drug and insurance industries know that while they’ll get a seat at the table, they don’t get to buy every chair,” he said.
Two other leading Democratic presidential candidates, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.), already have laid out healthcare reform plans. Clinton so far has only unveiled her proposal to reduce costs, but she plans to offer more detail about expanding coverage in the coming weeks. Obama’s and Edwards’s announced proposals encompass both cost and coverage.
Each of the three candidates included elements such as expanding the use of information technology in healthcare, promoting preventive medicine and offering coordinated care for people with chronic diseases in their proposals.
Obama, however, is the first of the three apparent frontrunners to call for the creation of a new federally administered healthcare program, based on the benefits offered to government employees. Obama also would use federal resources to provide “reinsurance” to cover catastrophic healthcare costs.
Most businesses would be required to offer coverage or pay into a fund for publicly subsidized benefits, and Obama would expand Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program to cover more low-income people. Obama also proposed instituting new federal regulations of health insurance, including a prohibition against denying coverage because of preexisting conditions, and greater scrutiny of mergers between health insurers.
I’ll back it when Barack Hussein Obama pays for it.
The “new” health plan (retreaded hillarycare) has only one additional provision, and that has to do with financing - restoration of the former tax rates when the current authorization for the current reduced rates expires over the coming years, by not renewing the enabling legislation.
Novel suggestion - why not allow the INDIVIDUAL the opportunity to purchase a health care plan, and make an incentive that is built into the tax code, for EVERYBODY, that would take up the cost of purchasing the plan, provider to be chosen by the individual? I can think of a dozen ways this would be ultimately workable.
Apparently Democraticans have hever heard of this potential alternative.
Wasn’t Al Gore the guy who used to talk about “risky schemes”? This one certainly qualifies, in that as schemes go, there is DEFINITELY risk.
Describing healthcare as a right, Obama said, “I believe that no amount of industry profiteering and lobbying should stand in the way of that right any longer. …
WTF? The government now takes 34% of GDP. Where’s the tipping point?
READ-
The federal government recorded a $1.3 trillion loss last year — far more than the official $248 billion deficit — when corporate-style accounting standards are used, a USA TODAY analysis shows.
The loss reflects a continued deterioration in the finances of Social Security and government retirement programs for civil servants and military personnel. The loss — equal to $11,434 per household — is more than Americans paid in income taxes in 2006.
Modern accounting requires that corporations, state governments and local governments count expenses immediately when a transaction occurs, even if the payment will be made later.
The federal government does not follow the rule, so promises for Social Security and Medicare don’t show up when the government reports its financial condition.
Bottom line: Taxpayers are now on the hook for a record $59.1 trillion in liabilities, a 2.3% increase from 2006. That amount is equal to $516,348 for every U.S. household. By comparison, U.S. households owe an average of $112,043 for mortgages, car loans, credit cards and all other debt combined.
Unfunded promises made for Medicare, Social Security and federal retirement programs account for 85% of taxpayer liabilities. State and local government retirement plans account for much of the rest.
This hidden debt is the amount taxpayers would have to pay immediately to cover government’s financial obligations. Like a mortgage, it will cost more to repay the debt over time. Every U.S. household would have to pay about $31,000 a year to do so in 75 years.
Count on it. We'll have to up the amnesty program from 20 million to 100+ million once the thirld world learns it's free, only the gringos have to pay.
OK Children. Can you say... socialism?
And not one reporter asked “If you pay for it with a tax increase, how, exactly, does that result in saving money for the taxpayers?”
If you reduce my premiums $2000 and raise my taxes $3000 I’m not saving money.
Obama is a hard core socialist wrapped in Opra nicey-nice talk.
Not one of these Bozos understand how large the impact of US Heatlhcare is on the economy of the US. If one is not very careful you could literally sink this economy almost over night.
I have friends in the UK, Canada and Asia - not one would take their country’s healthcare over what they get in the US. 2 of them actually preferred to pay cash for minor operations here vs. wait for the substandard care at home.
"What's yours is mine, comrade...Oh who am I kidding? I can't out-Stalin Hillary..."
“Bubba” gave that job to hillary and hillary will give that job to her VP (Oh’Mama). They are obsessed with ‘universal health care’ and complete socialization of this country.
“The proposal would partially be financed by not extending tax cuts scheduled to expire in several years.”
Why isnt the headline?
OBAMA PROPOSES MASSIVE TAX INCREASE.
oh, the Liberal media. silly me.
Let's hope not.
every American would have access to private or government-sponsored health benefits
Exactly who does not ‘hae access to’ now?
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