Obama's Healthcare Plan

[helderheid]

Highlights:
Extending Health Care To Children.

Nine million children lack health insurance coverage in America. As a state senator, Barack Obama sponsored and helped pass legislation that extends and expands Illinois' KidCare program to provide coverage for an additional 20,000 children and 65,000 more Illinois adults.

Empowering Health Care Consumers with Hospital Report Cards

Consumers do not have enough information to make good choices about their health care. Senator Obama introduced the Hospital Quality Report Card Act to require hospitals to report on the effectiveness, safety and timeliness of the care they provide. This legislation, which is similar to a bill that Barack Obama passed in the Illinois State Senate, would help patients make healthcare decisions and help providers and insurers get the right information to improve quality and contain costs.

Encouraging Medical Information Technology

Every transaction consumers make at banks across the country costs them less than a penny. Yet, because we have not updated technology in the health care industry, a single transaction at a hospital still costs up to $25--not one dime of which goes toward improving care. The lack of modern, interoperable information technology at our hospitals costs in time, money, and medical errors. Senator Obama worked with Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) to introduce the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program Efficiency Act to leverage the federal government's purchasing power to encourage the development of health information technology. The bill would require medical insurance companies that deal with the federal government to implement an electronic system for efficient and effective settlement of medical claims.

Fighting Health Disparities:

Minorities, the poor and those in remote areas are less healthy and receive lower quality health care than other Americans. Barack Obama championed the Minority Health Improvement and Health Disparity Elimination Act to understand the root causes of health disparities and to start to address them. The bill puts new emphasis on disparity research by directing the Department of Health and Human Services to collect and report healthcare data by race and ethnicity, as well as geographic and socioeconomic status and level of health literacy. The legislation also outlines mechanisms to conduct educational outreach to disparity populations, increase diversity among healthcare professionals, and improve the delivery of health care to minorities and other underserved groups.

Making Prescription Drugs Cheaper:

Spending in the U.S. for prescription drugs was $200 billion in 2005, more than five times more than the $40.3 billion spent in 1990. As a state senator, Obama helped pass legislation to reduce drug costs for seniors and low-income patients by discounting drugs, reducing copayments and encouraging the government to negotiate down the costs of drugs. Obama supports giving Medicare the right to use the federal government's buying power to negotiate down the costs of prescription drugs, just like the Department of Veterans Affairs does for our veterans' prescriptions.

Fighting AIDS Worldwide

There are 40 million people across the planet infected with HIV/AIDS. Every day, AIDS kills 8,000 and HIV infects 6,000 more people. The disease is set to become the third-leading cause of death worldwide in the coming years. Senator Obama has been a global leader in the fight against AIDS. He traveled to Kenya and took a public HIV test to encourage testing and reduce the stigma of the disease. The Senator joined Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) at a large California evangelical church to promote greater investment in the global AIDS battle. At this conservative Christian event, Obama pushed a balanced approach to fighting the disease that includes condom distribution. Senator Obama also worked with Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and others to introduce the Microbicide Development Act, which will accelerate the development of products that empower women in the battle against AIDS. Microbicides are a class of products currently under development that women apply topically to prevent transmission of HIV and other infections.

Rest:
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/healthcare/

[Grandrose]

1. K&R

:kick: and recommend.

[StudentsMustUniteNow]

2. Great plan except for one thing...

It's still health insurance.

[Hieronymus]

3. Exactly .. no insurance companies. Until someone comes up

with single payer like Europe and Canada have, they're just talking crap.:eyes: