Health Care Reform

The United States currently spends 2.2 trillion dollars a year on Health Care. It is projected that by the year 2017 we will be spending almost double, approximately 4 trillion dollars. The Health Care Reform bill will tax the wealthiest citizens and specific health care savings in three areas: promoting efficiency and accountability, aligning incentives towards quality and better care, and encouraging shared responsibility.1 The main reason Obama is trying to pass the Health Care reform is because he believes that the current health care system is flawed and millions of dollars are being used selfishly and that the new health care plan will eliminate the need of wasteful spending. Obama's other concern with the old health care plan is that health insurance companies don't cover people the way they should, the new health care plan will not let the insurance companies drop certain individuals because their medical coverage is to high.





To transform the new health care reform bill the Budget department will set aside a reserve fund of more than $630 billion over 10 years that will be dedicated towards financing reforms to our health care system. The President recognizes that while a very large amount of money and a major commitment, $630 billion is not sufficient to fully fund comprehensive reform.1 If the reform is signed then what it will do for the citizens of the United Stated is basically try to cover all Americans citizens over time. What the reform promises is Guarantee Choice, Make Health Coverage Affordable, Protect Families’ Financial Health, Invest in Prevention and Wellness, Provide Portability of Coverage, Aim for Universality, Improve Patient Safety and Quality Care, Maintain Long-Term Fiscal Sustainability.1 All of these things are a lot to promise for one bill especially for how much most of these will cost in the long run. The new reform bill sounds pretty good but the aim for universal health care throws me off a little because of the cost of it. 50% is a lot of money coming out of any ones paycheck and if interest rate continue to climb then it will eventually lead to more taxes.

The House and the Senate both have different sides of what the reform bill should say. One issue is on employer financial requirements, the Senate says: employers that do not offer quality coverage pay an 8% payroll tax on wages for all employees and the total payment for the Senate is 135 billion. The House says: employers that do not offer any coverage pay 750 dollars per employee if any one employee receives a tax credit in exchange. Employees also pay a penalty if they are late on there coverage, the total payment for the House is 25 Billion.2 I do not agree with either of these proposals because the United States economy depends of small businesses and if they decide to tax small businesses more, then I believe that this will cause more problems for the economy.

Pros:

• Everybody can get health care if they want it
• In the long run it will reduce hopefuly reduce medical cost
• Health insurance companies can no longer cap coverage, which means they can no longer say they have spent enough money on you
• There will be increased competition in the insurance market, there will be a push for the insurance companies to lower their rates.

Cons:

• For the first 10 years it will cost about a 100 billion dollars a year
• The Individual Mandate, you will either have to buy health insurance or have a 2% tax increase
• There will be a very high tax increase on people making makeing over a half a million dollars a year 3

Citations

1. http://www.healthreform.gov/

2. HScomparison

3.www.squashed.tumblr.com