Issues With The Obama Health Care plan : Part 1

As more and more debates ensue over what Obama's health care reform will look like in this country, it appears that the fog is starting to lift slightly and there is a clearer view of what the new health care reform policy will look like.

However, the fighting over how both sides feel about the bill has not calmed, and for good reason. Although the Obama administration would like to promise specific changes to health care reform, each reform shift comes with a cost, and the burden of that cost may not be fully recognized.

The obama administration would like to make certain shifts. According to the health care reform document produced by the House committees on Ways and Means, Energy and Commerce, and Education and Labor earlier this year; the shifts would occur in the following areas.

1) Coverage and Choice

2) Affordability

3) Shared responsibility

4) Controlling costs

5) Prevention and Workplace

6) Workforce investments

The Two main issues being coverage and choice, and affordability.

Each reform above promises change, yet the change is not all positive.

Let’s being with coverage and choice. President Obama wishes to mandate coverage in order to insure that everyone has insurance. This idea states that health care companies will not be able to deny people coverage and that they will have to provide certain health care benefits.

The problem with these issues is that the treatments that will be covered under insurance are those that are deemed “cost effective and necessary.” These health care requirements will be decided upon by an Obama executive committee. These will then be the base requirements that health care plans must cover.However, what if someone needs a treatment that has been deemed “inefficient?” It is then possible that the treatment will not be covered under the reform.

In addition, this new health care plan funnels people through a primary care physician, and much like in an HMO, the primary care service then becomes their health care referral service to specialist.These physicians will be in networks. This makes it more difficult for people to choose their own specialists and have full control over who they wish to see.

Also, although under the reform, health care coverage is offered to all, and costs are supposedly controlled, they are not distributed equally, and for a health care reform bill that wants to work around preventive medicine, no cost incentive is provided for being healthy.

Furthermore, Obama's adminstration is placing restrictions on insurance companies, as to what they can charge higher rates for. The cost is shared unevenly. Under Obama's reform bill, rates can only vary based on age, geography and location. However the difference in rates between two people cannot exceed 2:1.

This means that someone who is young and doesn’t use their health care because they are healthy is paying for more than they use, while an elderly person is only being charged twice as much but is using much more than that.

So according to Obama's current reform, it makes it more difficult to receive health coverage base on individual circumstances, and with costs being distributed differently, wealthy people tend to have more money than young people, so why should young people have to pay a larger percentage of their income?

Although Obama's reform does offer benefits, it is important that everyone understand all the implications so that Americans are not thrown into something that they do not want.

*information recieved from - American Affordable Healthy choices act of 2009- Quality affordable health care summary House committees of ways and means, Energy and Conservation, and Education and Labor July 14th, 2009