Health Insurance Pushing Forward With Health Care Reform

The Obama Health Insurance Plan – Here are the details that every American needs to know about the Health Insurance Plan. First, if you are among the hundreds of millions of Americans who already have health insurance, nothing in this plan will require you or your employer to change the coverage or the doctor you have. Under this plan, it will be against the law for insurance companies to deny you coverage because of a pre-existing condition. as soon as the president signs the Health Care Reform Bill, it will be against the law for insurance companies to drop your coverage when you get sick or water it down when you need it the most. Insurance companies will no longer be able to place some arbitrary cap on the amount of coverage you can receive in a given year or in a lifetime.

The Health Care Reform Act will place a limit on how much you can be charged for out-of-pocket expenses, because in the United States of America, no one should go broke because they get sick. And insurance companies will be required to cover, with no extra charge, routine checkups and preventive care, like mammograms and colonoscopies — because there is no reason we shouldn’t be catching diseases like breast cancer and colon cancer before they get worse.

If you lose your job or you change your job, you’ll be able to get coverage. If you strike out on your own and start a small business, you’ll be able to get coverage. Under the Health Care Reform Act a new health exchange will be created — a marketplace where individuals and small businesses will be able to shop for health insurance at competitive prices. For those individuals and small businesses who still can’t afford the lower-priced insurance available in the exchange, we’ll provide tax credits, the size of which will be based on your need. for those Americans who can’t get insurance today because they have pre-existing medical conditions, we will immediately offer low-cost coverage that will protect you against financial ruin if you become seriously ill.

This was a good idea when Senator John McCain proposed it in the campaign, it’s a good idea now, and we should all embrace it. But an additional step we can take to keep insurance companies honest is by making a not-for-profit public option available in the insurance exchange. It would only be an option for those who don’t have insurance. No one would be forced to choose it and would also keep pressure on private insurers to keep their policies affordable and treat their customers better. The President will not sign a Health Care Reform bill that adds one dime to America’s deficits — either now or in the future.

The President and his administration have estimated that most of the Health Care Reform Act can be paid for by finding savings within the existing health care system, a system that is currently full of waste and abuse. The only thing this plan would eliminate is the hundreds of billions of dollars in waste and fraud, as well as unwarranted subsidies in Medicare that go to insurance companies. The President will be creating a new “Independent Commission” of doctors and medical experts charged with identifying more waste in the years ahead.

These steps will ensure that the American people and America’s seniors get the benefits you’ve been promised. and we can use some of the saving to fill the gap in coverage that forces too many senior to pay thousands of dollars a year out of their own pockets for prescription drugs.

Many Republicans have long insisted that reforming our medical malpractice laws can help bring down the cost of health care. The Bush Administration considered authorizing demonstration projects in individual states to test these ideas. President Obama thinks that’s a good idea, and is directing the Secretary of Health and Human Services to move forward on this initiative.

The Obama Health Care Reform Act in 4 Minutes

If You Have Health Insurance

• If you like your insurance, you can keep it
• No more denial of coverage for pre-existing conditions
• No dropped coverage when you get sick
• Eliminates yearly and lifetime caps on coverage
• Caps out-of-pocket expenses
• Required coverage for preventive care

If You Don’t Have Health Insurance

• A new insurance marketplace, the Exchange
• New tax credits for individuals and small business
• Low-cost coverage for individuals and small businesses
• A public health insurance option

Paying For the Health Care Reform Act

• No money will be added to the deficit
• The Health Care Reform Act will be paid for upfront
• Independent medical experts to identify waste, fraud, and abuse
• Eliminates the prescription drug “Donut Hole”
• Immediate medical malpractice reform projects

The time for bickering is over. The time for games has passed. Now is the season for action. now is when we must bring the best ideas of both parties together, and show the American people that we can still do what we were sent here to do. Now is the time to deliver on Health Care.

(President Obama)

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Other Resources

• Health Care Reform – Losing Insurance
• Senate Passage of the Health Insurance Reform Bill
• Debunking Health Insurance Reform – Health Care America
• Public Option In The Health Care Reform Deleted