2008 Woodie Awards
Obama health plan has its upsides - and its downs
Hunter Rhoades
Issue date: 11/18/08 Section: Medical Incredible
I like to keep my personal life and political leanings separate. However, with the onset of a new presidency, it's hard not to take time to think about health care policies of the future.
Health care and politics, unfortunately, go hand-in-hand. It's no longer strictly about doctors providing treatment to their patients. So I ask, what is the future of healthcare in America under an Obama presidency?
According to his website, Obama's plan can be broken down into three major components:
1. Quality, affordable health coverage.
2. "Modernizing" the U.S. health care system to lower costs and improve quality
3. Promoting prevention and strengthening public health.
These parts sound well and good, but I questions where does all this money come from? I am all for turning our "sick care" system into a "health care" system, but not at the funding of the U.S. government, which is already facing mounting debt.
So is this plan possible? Well, I'll take the easy way out on this and say maybe. The Obama-Biden plan of saving every American $2,500 is really no radical solution, but rather a cost transference where someone has to pick up the tab. In this case, it's the taxpayers.
Also, is it not true that nothing in life is free? It makes me wonder that even as the president-elect plans to pay for our health care needs, what price will we, the "Joe the Plumbers" of America, ultimately pay? Even the Obama plan for taxes, with an increase for business that make over $250,000, will affect health care.
Does the president elect not realize that there is a big difference in the amount that the doctors in private practice, the elderly care facilities, and other care providers make on paper and report to the IRS and the real income that they actually have available after taxes and expenses?
Malpractice insurance, the cost of hiring secretaries, billing specialists, and other expenses add up. The majority of income of a small healthcare business often goes to overhead.
I don't deny that there is a lot of "feel-good," and maybe even a little bit of true change in the Obama-Biden plan, but remember one thing: In life and in politics, there is no panacea for our national woes.
I didn't vote for our now President elect, and I wouldn't change my vote for anything, but now that Barack Obama is the next leader of the free world, I must, as an American citizen, support him in his efforts to make this country a better place, and I wish him Godspeed on his seemingly impossible mission, and I hope that national health care in this country does not become a reality.
Health care and politics, unfortunately, go hand-in-hand. It's no longer strictly about doctors providing treatment to their patients. So I ask, what is the future of healthcare in America under an Obama presidency?
According to his website, Obama's plan can be broken down into three major components:
1. Quality, affordable health coverage.
2. "Modernizing" the U.S. health care system to lower costs and improve quality
3. Promoting prevention and strengthening public health.
These parts sound well and good, but I questions where does all this money come from? I am all for turning our "sick care" system into a "health care" system, but not at the funding of the U.S. government, which is already facing mounting debt.
So is this plan possible? Well, I'll take the easy way out on this and say maybe. The Obama-Biden plan of saving every American $2,500 is really no radical solution, but rather a cost transference where someone has to pick up the tab. In this case, it's the taxpayers.
Also, is it not true that nothing in life is free? It makes me wonder that even as the president-elect plans to pay for our health care needs, what price will we, the "Joe the Plumbers" of America, ultimately pay? Even the Obama plan for taxes, with an increase for business that make over $250,000, will affect health care.
Does the president elect not realize that there is a big difference in the amount that the doctors in private practice, the elderly care facilities, and other care providers make on paper and report to the IRS and the real income that they actually have available after taxes and expenses?
Malpractice insurance, the cost of hiring secretaries, billing specialists, and other expenses add up. The majority of income of a small healthcare business often goes to overhead.
I don't deny that there is a lot of "feel-good," and maybe even a little bit of true change in the Obama-Biden plan, but remember one thing: In life and in politics, there is no panacea for our national woes.
I didn't vote for our now President elect, and I wouldn't change my vote for anything, but now that Barack Obama is the next leader of the free world, I must, as an American citizen, support him in his efforts to make this country a better place, and I wish him Godspeed on his seemingly impossible mission, and I hope that national health care in this country does not become a reality.
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Quickmoney
Quick Money Loans
posted 11/19/08 @ 11:30 PM AKST
In today's financial climate, health problem, never-ending cycle of poverty, unemployment, terrorism, insufficient supply of food are just some of the current problem that our economy were facing today, and sadly there were almost 10 million of the worlds children dies each year at the age of five because of malnutrition. (Continued…)
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