Health Care Reform - What is it about? Who opposes it? Who pays for it?

As mentioned in a prior article, I am not totally sold on the health care reform package that President Obama is boldly trying to pass. President Obama is hitting the road pretty hard, trying to sell his package to people at town meetings. During the 2008 presidential campaign, Obama said over and over that the middle class -- which he defined as anyone making less than $250,000 -- would not face any tax increase. As late as yesterday, President Obama re-iterated his promise that there would be no new taxes for the middle class. This was a response to his own Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Larry Summers,director of the national Economic Council, said on Sunday that they could no longer guarantee that the middle class will be spared a tax increase.

Meanwhile, talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh and Mark Lavin are attacking President Obama's health care plan pretty hard. They seem to be fueled by this bill, as they are spiking up the negative criticisms on Obama's health care bill. On today's show, Rush compared the Health Care bill a corrupt act by the President of the United States, and paralleled it to the likings of a Bernie Madoff. The conservative movement appears to be hammering at President Obama as hard as they can, but the question still lies, will all this be enough to overturn the inevitable vote that most likely will take place in September.
President Obama really wants this bill to pass by the end of this year, but in reality, Obama stated as one of his campaign promises that he would pass a health care plan bill by the end of his 1st term, in the year 2012.

A national health care plan seems great when you think that everyone would be covered by health insurance. But at whose cost?  If it is true that President Obama may have to tax the middle class,  when he promised as late as yesterday that he would not tax the middle class, then President Obama may loose credibility on his promises. This health care reform bill most likely will be one of the hardest pieces of legislation to pass while he is president. Other presidents tried to change it, as most everyone, both republicans and democrats alike believe that the health care polices need a little bit of improvement.

President Obama may have been able to get an economic stimulus package passed with just a few members of Congress actually reading the entire bill prior to voting on it, but this time it may be a little different. As the saying goes, 'lightning most likely will not hit in the same place two times in a row', may be the realization that President Obama will have to make every aspect of the plan be known to the public before Congress passes such legislation without reading it will not fly this time.

Why is President Obama pushing so hard for this legislation?

One reason may be because of the rising costs of medical coverage. Health insurance premiums have doubled in the last 8 years, rising 3.7 times faster than wages in the past 8 years, according to the Obama - Biden plan to lower health care costs and ensure affordable, accessible health coverage for all.

A second reason is because over half of all personal bankruptcies are directly caused by medical bills.

A third reason may be because of the serious flaws in the health care delivery system. It is estimated that 100,000 Americans die each year from medical errors in hospitals. Lawsuits are running rampant because of the issues at hospitals.

A forth reason may be because almost 25% of all medical costs goes to administrative and overhead costs, and the lack of a national computerized system to replace the antiquated paper-based record and information systems is needed, because this overhead increases the costs.

A fifth reason may be because tens of millions of Americans are uninsured because of rising costs. But others have no insurance because they elect to. This administration realizes that everyone needs affordable health care insurance. Even insured people have a difficult time in paying their medical bills due to rising costs, and elect to lower their coverages, in some cases to a point where they may just say they don't have any coverage at all. People just hope that they do not get sick.

A sixth reason is because since there is a lack of health insurance, there are too many Americans that would sacrifice and go without high-value preventative services, such as cancer screening and immunizations to protect against flue or pneumonia. The health care system of today seems to be a disease care system that treats only sick people, and not much covered on prevention and public health.

A seventh reason may be because according to President Obama and Vice-President Biden, Americans will have a choice to keep their present insurance and watch their premiums actually go down substantially, or if there is no active insurance for you, the government will provide affordable insurance. This will also ensure patients choice of a doctor and care without government interference. If you have health insurance, nothing changes, but if you do not have health insurance, you will have a choice of new, affordable health insurance options.

Regardless of what you believe in here, whether you are for or against a new health care plan, most everyone agrees that the health care system needs to be re-vamped. Only the extreme conservatives believe that the plan should stay as it is, like the well-off kinds such as Rush Limbaugh and company. The only problem here is the cost. Only the upper middle class and wealth people can afford it, and nothing is presently in the way for it to continue to skyrocket out of most everyone's reach.