Subscription Center
Feb 25, 2009 06:20 PM | 14
The need to reform the U.S. healthcare system was a key theme of President Obama's address to Congress last night, and there's early word that the budget proposal he's set to release tomorrow will create a 10-year, $634 billion "reserve fund" to pay for it.
The Washington Post, citing administration documents and an unidentified White House official, is reporting that the money would come from reducing tax breaks for the wealthy (which Obama said last night includes those who make more than $250,000 a year) and lowering payments to insurers, hospitals and physicians.
The plan, according to the Post, would force private insurers who sell Medicare managed-care plans to undergo a competitive bidding process, which would save an estimated $175 billion over the next decade. Drug makers would have to increase their medication rebates to Medicaid patients from 15 percent to 21 percent. And hospitals that have high readmission rates would be paid less by Medicare, using a system of flat fees for the first hospitalization and 30-day follow-up.
Obama described health reform last night as "a down-payment on the principle that we must have quality, affordable health care for every American. It's a commitment that’s paid for in part by efficiencies in our system that are long overdue."
He noted that there's money in the $787 billion economic stimulus package earmarked to develop electronic medical records and "new technology that will reduce errors, bring down costs, ensure privacy, and save lives."
"Let there be no doubt," he told lawmakers in the televised address, " health care reform cannot wait, it must not wait, and it will not wait another year."
Image © iStockphoto/Elnur Amikishiyev
Tags:
health reform,
health care,
Barack Obama
More News Blog:
Next: Florida professor accused of defrauding NASA
Previous: In today's computers, energy efficiency trumps speed
See what we're tweeting about
BoraZ An Itch Is Not a Low-Level Form of Pain http://t.co/OKYHfWIVNP
BecCrew SAD OTTER RT @io9 The world's most awkward taxidermy. http://t.co/csvaomTVG0 BecCrew RT @jgold85 Once Upon A Time, The Catholic Church Decided That Beavers Were Fish http://t.co/uDUtwV7DpI #SciAmBlogs
Deadline: Jun 29 2013
Reward: $7,000 USD
The Seeker for this Challenge desires proposals for chemical methods that could rapidly degrade a dilute aqueous solution
Deadline: Jul 15 2013
Reward: $5,000 USD
SciBX: Science-Business eXchange, a joint publication from the makers
Powered By: 
YES! Send me a free issue of Scientific American with no obligation to continue the subscription. If I like it, I will be billed for the one-year subscription.
14 Comments
Add CommentAll I can say is this guy is 'right on' and it's about time we had leaders that can push our needs forward in a parallel fashion rather than the usual serial, slow, and uninspired manner. RS
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am all fo Obama and I like the Idea and I am for Obama all the way... If I were 18 I would have voted for him... but I am not so yea
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLooks like you are adopting the Australian Medicare system. If this happens sell your shares in drug companies that do not believe in cures for disease but are dedicated to lifetime disease management.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but not all of the people all of the time." A.Lincon
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe above solutions were used when medicare was set up. Providers and insurance companies were to provide more medical services and medications for a discount to the government's services. Retail payers, those that pay their own bills have to pay much more to set the discount price. the rich have insurance, the poor have medicare and the middle get to be fewer and fewer as they are pauperized by sky rocketing retail medical costs. For those who don't believe me, I'm an old disabled war veteran and I know what government controlled medicine is like. I also know what the relative costs of medical services and medicines were 50 years ago before LBJ started fixing the problem. If you are in a hole you should stop digging. Obama is not GOD's gift to the world, the great deceiver fallows a differant path.
ok cool, so people who work for their hard earned money end up having to pay more and don't get anything more in return, and physicians who dedicate their lives to helping other people get a pay degrade. AWESOME obama! I should transfer to med school now!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisand it's going to get alot worse
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am all for Obama too, but I am afraid he is setting his goals too high. Sooner or later one or more of his plans are going to fall through--hopefully it won't be those involving health care or economic reform...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisi'm sure we will have more med students signing up now to get into debt, study their butts off for 7 or more years after college and live almost as well as an auto worker without the work hour restrictions, for a few years. Yup, that's going to fly.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI never knew a politician could make so much sense. Halleluja! I'm especially excited about the 1.1 billion he's putting towards the comparative effectiveness research. Now we will be able to research competing drugs/devices against eachother and not just placebos. Finally, we can do away with this fee-for-service "bribe", where the drug manufacturers are paying hospitals and doctors to use their most expensive drugs and treatments reguardless of how well they work. In twenty years we will look back at the tactics of the FDA and drug companies and see them for how inhumane they really are. Go Obama!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think it is so funny how everyone is so afraid our health care system will resemble Europe's and Australias if Obama has his way.. oh no! Drug companies and insurance companies sure have you fooled. We pay more than any other country in the world for our health care.. but we are ranked 37th in the world. It's pathetic. You can't run health care like you run a corperation. Health care's bottom line should be quality of life, not bottom dollar. Oh, and do you really think a physican is going to decide against going to school because he's not going to get as high of a tax break on his 250,000 when all is said and done? Yeah, I'm sure he's going to say screw it and work at mcdonalds. Because those guys, man, they've got it made now with Obama. right. said the silver spoon fed yuppy with no social moral.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisActually, I am a broke college student putting myself through school to get an Electrical Engineering degree. Not a silver spoon fed yuppy with no social moral.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI will grant the Obama administrative credit for focusing on cost containment measures first before determining how to pay for a public healthcare plan. That said, I am concerned Mr. Obama's advisors continue to fail to understand the bona fide reasons why the US system experiences unbridled healthcare spending. In order for Mr. Obama to successfully pass a comprehensive plan, he must accomplish the following.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this1. Educate himself and the American people about the external reasons for healthcare inflation.
2. Develop more aggressive tactics to contain spending based upon this understanding.
3. Once he has developed a tangible cost containment strategy for the delivery side, the finance piece will be much easier to implement.
In the past, the Clinton Healthcare Plan and Kerry Healthcare Plan failed because both focused on the finance piece first and not on cost containment strategies to compel the delivery system to become affordable for people today and ten years from now.
Lastly, Mr. Obama has already made his first tactical error with healthcare reform by implementing a cost containment, quality improvement program that will be ineffective. It has been proven time and time again that the implementation of Electronic Medical Records increases direct costs to medical enterprises that do not outweigh any quality benefits.
Layton Lang
PhyDelity
I will grant the Obama administrative credit for focusing on cost containment measures first before determining how to pay for a public healthcare plan. That said, I am concerned Mr. Obama's advisors continue to fail to understand the bona fide reasons why the US system experiences unbridled healthcare spending. In order for Mr. Obama to successfully pass a comprehensive plan, he must accomplish the following.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this1. Educate himself and the American people about the external reasons for healthcare inflation.
2. Develop more aggressive tactics to contain spending based upon this understanding.
3. Once he has developed a tangible cost containment strategy for the delivery side, the finance piece will be much easier to implement.
In the past, the Clinton Healthcare Plan and Kerry Healthcare Plan failed because both focused on the finance piece first and not on cost containment strategies to compel the delivery system to become affordable for people today and ten years from now.
Lastly, Mr. Obama has already made his first tactical error with healthcare reform by implementing a cost containment, quality improvement program that will be ineffective. It has been proven time and time again that the implementation of Electronic Medical Records increases direct costs to medical enterprises that do not outweigh any quality benefits.
Layton Lang
PhyDelity
It appears that being Republican or Democrat no longer matters. The end result continues to lay the bulk of the finacial burden on those with less. When the "less" can be taxed no further in support of there even less fortunate unemployed friends and neighbors, than we reduce the benefits that they currently overpay for. All the while Insurance companies, Pharmaceutical companies, and large health care chains (for profit hospitl systems) continue to enjoy their bulging profit margins. Shame on President Obama for misleading the voting public with his "the rich no longer get richer" message during his election campaign. Well, the truth be told, the rich do not necessarily get richer but certainly will easily afford the marginal increase in taxes, while continuing to recieve the highest quality of heath care because THEY CAN AFFORD IT. The elderly continue to endure the erosion of an already diluted heath care system which proposes to further dilute benefits while adding additional cost to their already stretched fixed incomes. Isn't this a bit reminiscent of the oil companies during the Bush administration, in which they enjoyed the largest profit margins in history while reserves were clearly never in danger. As a health care worker for over forty years I have witnessed the erosion of our health care system. We have gone from leading the world in providing the very best health care to being middle of the road. America use your voice and your vote because as you reach your entitlement years you will have no one to blame but yourself.!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this