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Obama nationalized health care plans debated
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Morguefile.com
Americans are becoming uneasy about the Obama and Democrats nationalized health care plans which is causing a debate among politicians as to whether the timing is wrong as the 2010 election approaches.
According to the Christian Science Monitor (04/08/2009) interest groups on the right and the left have already opened the battle lines with each side trying to shape the public's perception of how nationalized medicine will effect individual Americans.
Advocates say it would give consumers a lower-cost alternative. Opponents counter that it would undermine the private insurance health market by prompting millions of businesses to switch to cheaper, public alternative that would undermine Americans choices in healthcare.
Conservative groups headed by the Heritage Foundation are proposing apublic health alternative while liberal groups such as MoveOn.org and Democracy for Americans are supporting a Medicare-for-all-type of alternative.
According to Robert Blendon, a political and healthcare analyst at Harvard's School of Public Health,
Initially, people are very favorable to the idea of a choice that could get them good medical care at a lower price, but they haven't thought about the implications yet.
History bears that out. When President Clinton first outlined his Health Security Plan in 1992, over 66 percent of Americans initially supported the idea. Within a year, support collapsed after the health insurance industry began running ads in opposition to it. A Rasmussen poll done in December 2008 showed that 58 percent of Americans would oppose a public plan if they thought it would undermine their present private insurance policy.
Now opponents, such as the Health Policy Consensus Group, contend that
...the government would use its regulatory, pricing, and taxing authority to favor its own plan....which would make it difficult, if not impossible for private health plans to compete and eventually consumers would find themselves without private insurance alternatives.
Most likely, Democrats in Congress will prevail upon Obama to delay any action on the nationalized healthcare plans until after the 2010 election. If not, it could become an issue in the political battle for control of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate if Republicans can convince Americans that it is the beginning of socialized medicine.
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