THE HEALTH CARE PROBLEM The U.S. spends $2 trillion on health care every year, and offers the best medical technology and scientific research in the world. Yet, the benefits of the American health care system come at a price that an increasing number of individuals and families, employers and employees, and public and private providers cannot afford.
47 million Americans - including nearly 9 million children - lack health insurance.
Health care costs are skyrocketing.
Too little is spent on prevention and public health.
Health Care Overview
Lowering health care costs and ensuring affordable, high-quality health care for all
The Obama plan will save a typical American family up to $2,500 every year on premiums by:
- Providing affordable, comprehensive and flexible health coverage for every American;
- Modernizing the U.S. health care system to contain escalating health care costs and improve patient care; and
- Promoting prevention and strengthening public health to prevent disease and protect against disasters.
Quality, Affordable & Portable Health Care Coverage for All
The Obama plan both builds upon and improves our current insurance system, upon which most Americans continue to rely, and leaves Medicare intact for older and disabled Americans.
1. Obama's Plan to Cover the Uninsured.
- Guaranteed eligibility.
- Comprehensive benefits.
- Affordable premiums, co-pays and deductibles.
- Subsidies.
- Simplifying paperwork and reining in health costs.
- Easy enrollment.
- Portability and choice.
- Quality and efficiency.
2. National Health Care Insurance Exchange.
3. Employer Heath Care Contribution.
4. Mandatory Health Care Coverage of Children.
5. Expansion of Medicaid and SCHIP.
6. Flexibility for State Plans.
Modernizing the U.S. Health Care System to Lower Costs and Improve Quality
1. Reducing Health Care Costs of Catastrophic Illnesses for Employers and their Employees.
2. Lowering Costs by Ensuring Patients Receive and Providers Deliver Quality Health Care .
Helping Patients
- Supporting disease management programs.
- Coordinate and integrate health care .
- Require full transparency about health care quality and costs and promote patient safety.
- Align incentives for excellence.
- Support comparative health care effectiveness research.
- Tackle disparities in health care .
- Reform medical malpractice.
3. Lowering Costs through Investment in Electronic Health Care Information Technology Systems.
4. Lowering Health Care Costs by Increasing Competition in the Insurance and Drug Markets.
- Increasing competition in health care industry.
- Lowering prescription drug costs.
Promoting Illness Prevention and Strengthening Public Health
1. Employers. Obama believes that worksite interventions hold tremendous potential to influence public health and will expand and reward these efforts.
2. School Systems. Obama will work with schools to create more healthy environments for children.
3. Workforce. Obama will expand funding - including loan repayment, adequate reimbursement, grants for training curricula, and infrastructure support to improve working conditions - to ensure a strong workforce that will champion prevention and public health activities.
4. Individuals and Families. The Obama health plan will require coverage of essential clinical preventive services such as cancer screenings and smoking cessation programs in all federally supported health plans including Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP and the new public plan. In addition, Obama will increase funding to expand community based preventive interventions to help Americans make better choices that can help ward off chronic and preventable diseases and improve their health.
5. Federal, State and Local Governments. . The federal government and state and local governments play critical roles in disease prevention and health promotion activities.
As president, Barack Obama will prioritize these activities to improve prevention and public health, as well as advocate for the following initiatives:
- Advance the Biomedical Research Field.
- Fight AIDS Worldwide.
- Support Americans with Disabilities.
- Improve Mental Health Care .
- Protect Our Children from Lead Poisoning.
- Reduce Risks of Mercury Pollution.
- Support Americans with Autism.
Increase Transparency in the Health Care Industry
As President, Obama will work to implement important proposals that empower individuals in dealing with the health care industry, including:
- Providing easy-to-understand comparisons of the medicare prescription drug plans
- Requiring full transparency about health care quality and costs.
- Promoting patient safety through full disclosure.
- Figuring out what works in health care .
Barack Obama on Health Care
