Insurelane Insurance Blog

After universal healthcare promises and criticism for not providing a detailed plan, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama revealed his proposal for universal healthcare in America.

The plan allows every American to get private health insurance. It will create a National Health Insurance Exchange to monitor the coverage and rates of insurance providers. Insurance companies would not be allowed to deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.

Those who can’t afford private coverage will be given subsidies on a sliding scale based on income, reported the Associated Press.

Obama’s plan also requires businesses to provide health insurance for their employees or at least share the cost of coverage. He said the coverage would be similar to the health insurance plan for the members of Congress.

“My plan begins by covering every American. If you already have health insurance, the only thing that will change for you under this plan is that the amount of money you will spend on premiums will be less,” said Obama in Iowa City.

“If you are one of 45 million Americans who don’t have health insurance, you will after this plan becomes law,” he added.

Because it’s inevitable people will need care for catastrophic accidents, terminal illnesses, and other serious conditions, Obama’s plan will create a reinsurance pool to reduce risk for insurance companies. And the plan will focus on disease prevention and better management of chronic health conditions.

But Obama knows the cost of any universal healthcare plan will be expensive to implement onto the American system.

“To help pay for [the plan], we will ask all but the smallest businesses who don’t make a meaningful contribution to the health coverage of their workers to do so to support this plan,” explained the Illinois Senator. “And we also will repeal the temporary Bush tax cut for the wealthiest taxpayers.”

Mr. Obama says that “the time has come for universal, affordable health care in America.”

“Every year candidates offer up detailed plans with great fanfare, only to see them crushed under the weight of Washington politics and drug and insurance industry lobbying once the campaign is over,” he said.

“Well, this cannot be one of those years.”

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