Time to review the healthcare program Obama campaigned on.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/issues/HealthCareFullPlan.pdf

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

1. Here's centerpiece as regards insurance for all

(1) GUARANTEED ELIGIBILITY.> Obama and Biden will require insurance companies to cover pre-existing
conditions so all Americans, regardless of their health status or history, can get comprehensive benefits at fair
and stable premiums.

(2) NEW AFFORDABLE, ACCESSIBLE HEALTH INSURANCE OPTIONS. The Obama-Biden plan will create a
National Health Insurance Exchange to help individuals purchase new affordable health care options if they are
uninsured or want new health insurance. Through the Exchange, any American will have the opportunity to
enroll in the new public plan or an approved private plan, and income-based sliding scale tax credits will be
provided for people and families who need it. Insurers would have to issue every applicant a policy and charge
fair and stable premiums that will not depend upon health status. The Exchange will require that all the plans
offered are at least as generous as the new public plan and meet the same standards for quality and efficiency.
Insurers would be required to justify an above-average premium increase to the Exchange. The Exchange
would evaluate plans and make the differences among the plans, including cost of services, transparent.

The Exchange will have the following features:
�� Comprehensive benefits. The benefit package will be similar to that offered through the Federal
Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), the program through which Members of Congress get
their own health care. Plans will include coverage of all essential medical services, including preventive,
maternity and mental health care.

�� Affordable premiums, co-pays and deductibles. Participants will be charged fair premiums and
minimal co-pays for deductibles for preventive services.
�� Simplified paperwork. The plan will simplify paperwork for providers and will increase savings to the
system overall.

�� Easy enrollment. All Exchange health insurance plans will be simple to enroll in and provide ready
access to coverage.

�� Portability and choice. Participants will be able to move from job to job without changing or
jeopardizing their health care coverage.

�� Quality and efficiency. Participating hospitals and providers that participate in the new public plan will
be required to collect and report data to ensure that standards for health care quality, health informa

His campaign materials refer repeatedly to "the new public plan" based on the FederalEmployees Health Benefits Program.

Here is my individual bottom line - I expect President Obama AT MINIMUM to personally campaign and project a leadership role in passing a healthcare reform package very close to the one he campaigned on, that made a new public plan its centerpiece.

Healthcare was a HUGE issue in the last campaign. We all listened very closely and we voted because we expected delivery on campaign promises. I am calling in that chit.

[FrenchieCat]

4. I agree that a Public Plan option is a must!

My hubby wrote the WH and our senators a letter in reference to this, as did I.

Here is his letter (mine was similar).

Dear ,

I am self employed, and run my business out of a storefront, meaning my overhead cost is high, and I am simply keeping my head over water during these dire economic times. My wife is a self employed Accountant who works out of our home earning a modest living to supplement the household income.

We have two girls, three years apart. The oldest who is graduating from college next month, and the youngest is in her first year of college. As you can imagine, the cost of college has made a dent in our disposable income.

We also own a home here in California that we have lived in for the last 17 years, and we are struggling to make our monthly mortgage payment each and every month.

Our annual total income varies depending on the year, but we saw a sharp decline in our earnings starting in late 2007 in where we earned the least amount we had earned in years.

I am writing this letter in regards to America’s health care issue. We pay approximately $1,200 per month in health care and dental premium for our family of four.

Please know that we must also pay $75.00 as co-payment each time we visit the doctor, and do not have prescription coverage. This is in addition to paying our monthly premium to HMO Kaiser Permanente. Luckily, for now, we are relatively healthy, although this could change at anytime as both my wife and I are over 50 years old.

I support your original campaign proposal of reducing health care cost across the board, and introducing a public health plan to the menu as an option to be available for Americans to choose.

This letter is to urge you not to compromise with the special interest bigwigs to the point that you agree in removing your promise for a public option off the table. I don’t think Americans simply want Health Care Insurance reform, but rather we want Health Care reform....and that is a big difference.

As Americans who really cannot afford health coverage as it is, but are forced to, we are waiting for you to provide us with some real relief. We urge you to continue to fight for a public health care option for coverage, because apart from the uninsured, it is Americans like us, who are on the edge of losing our health care who need assistance and reasonable affordable choice ASAP!

Respectfully,

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

5. Great letter, Frenchie!

My husband and I pay around $900 a month for the 2 of us. Would you ever have believed that health insurance would be as much or more than a mortgage payment?

I am sick with envy over the healthcare plans of other countries. I cannot understand how the Leader of the Free World cannot deliver for her citizens whne others have been doing so for years.

[FrenchieCat]

6. Well, here in California, our Morgage Payment is definitely more than our health cost......

but it shouldn't even be sorta kinda of close!

We pay so much in "insurance" of all sorts, until it has become ridiculous...that we actually have to spend money each and every month that we don't have for something that may or may not happen.

[Born_A_Truman]

8. Show your support!

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/organizingforhealthcare

FYI--
You don't have to donate if you don't want to; I signed up for attending healthcare functions, etc.

[riderinthestorm]

2. K and R. I enthusiastically agree with you - hold Obama to his promise. nt

[alsame]

3. "The Federal Employees Health Benefits Program" - we should

have an option as good as that. They do, after all, work for us. Something they too often forget.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

7. late night kick!

[firedupdem]

9. We have to lean on them to get this program. I'm all for a public

option. The cost is burying us.

[jeanpalmer]

10. We need more than a public option

We need to take the profit out of health care altogether. We need to rethink the whole healthcare delivery system.

The two systems we need to look at are the British system and the Cuban system. They're government run and seem to provide good healthcare at a reasonable cost. How do they do it? We have single payer in the form of Medicare, so we have some experience with that. But we don't have any experience with a government run system for the general public. The VA system is government run, but for a limited clientele.

I'd like to see a pilot project based on the British system. Maybe one state where it would be implemented to see what the results would be. Why not?

I think we short change ourselves if we look only at for-profit systems. The profit motive totally distorts healthcare. Whether it's at the insurance end or the doctor/hospital end. Let's seriously look at the not-for-profit alternatives.

The other thing we need to do is reduce defense spending. Drastically. It sucks up too many resources, with nothing to show for it. We're never going to be able to fund a public healthcare system while we're wasting $800 billion a year on defense. It's impossible. So I'll know people are serious about healthcare reform when I see them talking about reducing the defense budget by 50% at least. If they're not willing to consider that, they're offering smoke and mirrors and are not serious.

[vaberella]

11. Agreed. However lets get this through and then reform as we go!!

We need something that will pass the Senate and this has the strongest chance of breaking that locked door.