Barack Obama on Health Care
Barack Obama has a plan for a healthy America.
The Problem
Nearly 45 million Americans lack health insurance. Health insurance premiums have risen
four times faster than wages over the past six years. About 100,000 Americans die from medi-
cal errors in hospitals every year. The nation faces epidemics of obesity and chronic diseases
as well as new threats of pandemic flu and bioterrorism.
Obama’s plan will provide affordable, comprehensive and portable health coverage for
all Americans by:
• Making available a new public health plan that will allow individuals and small businesses to buy
affordable health care similar to that available to members of Congress. No one will be turned
away or charged more due to illness, and everyone who needs it will receive a subsidy for their
premiums.
• Making available a National Health Insurance Exchange to help individuals purchase private
coverage and to reform the private insurance market. Any American could enroll in participating
private plans, which would have to provide comprehensive benefits, issue every applicant a policy,
and charge fair and stable premiums.
• Immediately ensuring that all of the 9 million currently uninsured children have affordable, high-
quality health coverage.
• Expanding Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program and ensuring they con-
tinue to serve their critical safety net function.
• Requiring employers to make a meaningful contribution to the health coverage of their employ-
ees.
Obama’s plan will reduce costs and save a typical American family up to $2,500 each
year:
• Driving adoption of state-of-the-art health information technology systems.
• Improving access to preventive care and chronic disease management programs.
• Requiring hospitals to collect and report health care cost and quality data.
• Reforming our market structure to increase competition in the insurance and drug markets
• Lowering drug costs by allowing importation of safe medicines from other developed coun-
tries and increasing use of generics in public programs.
