The Obama administration today, released a $950 billion healthcare reform proposal which falls squarely in the middle of the wants from both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Though Obama’s plan would increase accountability for insurance companies and set up a new competitive health insurance market, it does not contain the much-discussed government-backed insurance option.
The White House says the proposal will make healthcare more affordable, make health insurers more accountable, expand health coverage to all Americans, and make the health system sustainable, stabilizing family budgets, the Federal budget, and the economy, according to its Web site. Some key points it lists include the following:
- Making insurance more affordable by providing the largest middle class tax cut for health care in history, reducing premium costs for tens of millions of families and small business owners who are priced out of coverage today. This helps over 31 million Americans afford health care who do not get it today — and makes coverage more affordable for many more.
- Setting up a new competitive health insurance market giving tens of millions of Americans the exact same insurance choices that members of Congress will have.
- Bringing greater accountability to health care by laying out commonsense rules of the road to keep premiums down and prevent insurance industry abuses and denial of care.
- Ending insurance discrimination against Americans with pre-existing conditions.
- Putting the U.S. budget and economy on a more stable path by reducing the deficit by $100 billion over the next ten years — and about $1 trillion over the second decade — by cutting government overspending and reining in waste, fraud and abuse.
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