Obama Health Care Plan highlights. Monday, President Obama released his health care proposal that he hopes will add to the legislation that passed the Senate on Christmas Eve. 31 million Americans who are currently uninsured would be covered under the Health Care Plan.
Some of the main additions include:
All Americans would be required to obtain health insurance or pay a fine, however low income families would be exempt. The Senate bill that passed Christmas Eve stated that families under the federal poverty level of $21,200 for a family of four would be exempt. Obama's proposal released today would increase that level to 45,295 for a family of four. Obama said that if insurance cost more than 8% of their income it would cause a hardship.
Several insurance market reforms would be put into place including:
• Insurance companies will be unable to deny coverage for people with pre-existing conditions or charging women more
• The federal government would have the authority to block rate hikes and roll back premium prices
• The government may also force insurance companies to give rebates to consumers
The Medicaid system would be expanded and the government would pay up to 100% of insurance costs for a family of four earning less than $29,327 a year, through 2017.
Businesses would not be required to offer insurance coverage to its employees, but a fee of $2,000 per employee would be charged to companies with more than 50 employees if the government has to subsidize coverage. The fee is up from $750.00 per employee.
The public option plan was not included in Obama’s health care plan proposal released Monday.
The abortion part of the health care plan bill did not change.
For a detailed view of the changes proposed on Monday from ABC News, click here.
On July 1st, 2009 President Obama said in a health care speech: Intermountain Health Care in Salt Lake City, Utah…offers high quality health care at costs that are well below average, in some cases 30% lower than other communities. He goes on to say that if it can be done there, it can be done everywhere in this country.
Utah has the lowest per capita healthcare spending rate in the nation at $3,972. The national average is $7,026, according to a July 2009 Salt Lake Tribune article.
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Sources: ABC News and the Salt Lake Tribune
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