President Obama’s healthcare plan is based on three main promises: 1) Reduce costs; 2) Guarantee choice through a public option; and 3) Quality care for all citizens.
While most agree that healthcare needs to change and few argue against the merits of these goals, we must first understand how Obama plans to achieve his promises and what that means for Americans.
The price for this program ranges from $1 to $2 trillion, a substantial sum, but Obama promises that the new healthcare program will not add to the deficit. He promises to remove the wasteful, unnecessary programs that some estimate take up to 1/3 of the healthcare industry. Unfortunately, except for a spattering of specific patient examples, he has no broad outline of what wasteful programs are removable. Similarly, adding large government bureaucracy to the already confusing healthcare system is unlikely to sharpen healthcare diagnosis and/or treatment.
Next, Obama plans to raise revenue through taxes and incentives (penalties is a more appropriate term). Staying true to form, he plans to raise taxes for those who manage to be successful in today’s economy. On top of that, Obama’s plan includes the removal of tax deductions for charitable contributions, thus hurting charities, universities and high-taxed cities.
His plan not only taxes the wealthiest, but also hurts businesses, big and small, as well as their employees, high income and low. Any household making 300% more than the poverty line (about $66,000) is in danger of having its healthcare benefits taxed. Even worse, small business owners who cannot afford health coverage for their employees will be penalized.
Larger businesses will be forced to make tough decisions as well. They will stop hiring low-income workers because of the penalties that result from not providing them insurance. Most businesses are also likely to switch to the government plan because of its economic advantages, forcing employees to change healthcare providers (something Obama promised wouldn’t happen) and destroying much of the healthcare and insurance industry (costing millions of jobs).
Obama’s healthcare plan is riddled with difficulties, inconsistencies, and impossibilities. As the debate rages on about the future of healthcare, we plan to keep a close watch on a plan that is likely to affect every citizen and business in this country. We will investigate three aspects of this debate that we found to be most worrisome: 1) Employer healthcare; 2) Government control; and 3) the effect on the people.
Give us your comments, and let us know how you feel about this situation.
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