Positives and Negatives of President Obama's Health Care Reform Package

Opinion of  'James', editor of  'Obama in the White House' blog

All you hear lately surrounding Barack Obama these days is 'Health Care Reform'. Actually, there are some main reasons for it. It represents Barack Obama's very first main political test as President. You may have thought that the economic stimulus plan would have been his first challenge. Actually, support for the economic stimulus plan was split down party lines, and a few of the right wing activist senators also voted for the bill. So actually it wasn't a very big challenge. But now, in the forefront is his first real test known as Health care reform. Results of Health Care reform whether it becomes law or not has become a major factor that will help determine President Obama's future as President of the United States. With less than 1 year in his presidency in a first term, people are already making predictions of his re-election, and most everyone believes that health care reform success or failure will take a major part in the next presidential election in 2012.
President Obama believes that the present system will not work much longer. He claims that with the present care of today, we now wait until people get sick, then provide them with care. Preventative medicine is almost not heard of these days. Presently, 164 million Americans have insurance through their work. Approximately 14 million people pay for their own insurance. It has been reported that 49 million people in the United States do not have any kind of insurance. It includes people who have elected not to have it, and people who simply cannot afford to pay for it. It includes people who cannot acquire insurance because of existing health conditions. For extreme right wing activists or so called "conservative republicans" support for the bill will never be supported, but President Obama is pretty much determined to get some bi-partisan support for his bill. Without the support, the bill will be almost certain not to pass.
If most everyone agree that health care reform is necessary, then why has this reform bill become President Obama's biggest challenge. It is a fact that insurance costs have more than doubled since 1999, as costs are now up more than 117%. Without a doubt, the main reason for people not supporting the bill is cost. President Obama has claimed time and time again that Nationalized health care can be provided without adding to the deficit in the next decade. This statement so far has almost been impossible to prove on paper. People are becoming skeptical on the Presidents decisions on Health Care reform, and has received less support for the reform bill as each day rolls along.
In a previous administration, namely President Clinton, he tried to get a health care reform bill passed in 1993, but was unsuccessful. People may not realize this fact, but President Clinton came up with the bill and provided it to Congress and it did not pass. This time around, President Obama had decided to let Congress create the bill in hopes that this bill would be better accepted for passage. So both the House and Senate created their own Health Reform bills that must be scrutinized by both sides. Still a bill in any form so far has received less and less support.

In a netshell, here are some of the benefits of the plan if passed.

1) Lower costs of insurance
2) People will be required to have it
3) No discrimination based on existing conditions.
4) Premiums will be drastically reduces so health insurance is affordable.
5) Health Insurance industry supports the bill if it contains 'no public option'
6) Illegal immigrants/aliens will not benefit from medical insurance.

In a nutshell, here are some of the negatives for having the plan if passed:

1) Very high cost, up to 1,000,0000,000,0000 = 1 trillion dollar cost.
2) Higher taxes for the wealthy to help pay for the plan.
3) Backups in medBackups in medical care due to overwhelmed emergency rooms, and the lack of at least 10,000 more doctors are needed now, even before this bill if passed would create a rush of doctor and hospital visits.
4) Premiums will be paid by the uninsured if the insurance is not accepted by the employee from the employer.                
5) Less choices provided by government insured health care.
6) Illegal immigrants/aliens still will drain money from health care as they will still have access to hospital emergency rooms.