President Obama revealed his healthcare plan this morning. His current plan maintains a large portion of the health reform architecture passed by Senate Democrats in December. Features remaining include a requirement for people to purchase their health insurance, government subsidies for people who cannot afford coverage and means to raise revenue to pay for the subsidies.
However, recommendations, suggestions and complaints made to the President and the White House regarding changes to the Healthcare proposals, have not gone unnoticed.
The new plan will allow individuals to shop across state lines to acquire the best coverage with the least premium cost in addition to increasing the selection pool with health insurance exchanges.
In addition, with everyone crying foul, the “Cornhusker Kickback” has been eliminated. This was the provision negotiated by the Democratic Congressman from Nebraska, Senator Ben Nelson that required the federal government to pay for Nebraska’s portion of Medicaid expansion costs. The new proposal calls for the government paying for all of their Medicaid increases for every state until 2018 and a portion after that.
Another write-in, which the White House addressed, is the delay of applying an excise tax for all “Cadillac” insurance policies, not just those held by Union members.
A solution attractive to advancement and protection of small businesses (and just makes sense) is that $40 billion in small-business tax credits would be in place to aid employers paying for insurance for their staff.
Clearly, the White House and President are committed to having a new, affordable healthcare plan in place.
Now, let’s see tort reform and we really will be headed in the right direction.
