Audacity Of Hope

An estimated50 million Americans lack or cannot afford proper medical

insurance. Of these 50 million, roughly 18,000 people die of problems that could have been prevented by proper medical attention. We simply need to stop all these preventable deaths, and the only way to do it is providing some form of universal health care. This upcoming election is going to be a huge election, as it will greatly change the way our country takes care of its people. Both presidential candidates Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton have taken a stab at taking care of healthcare, but have bigger plans if they are elected president. It is our obligation to take the initiative and vote for the person who can lead our country best.

The United States of America is one of the only superpowers in the world without some form of universal health care. Businesses are now suffering because it is becoming harder and harder to compete with other businesses located in countries that have universal health care. While businesses are not happy with the lack of universal healthcare, neither are the employees. Many Americans are staying in jobs they hate because the job has medical coverage. While our country is one of the worlds superpowers, the US healthcare system was ranked 37th out of 190 countries by the World Health Organization.

Barack Obama is a presidential candidate from a very diverse background. When confronted with the issue of healthcare, Barack has responded many times with, “Health care should be a right for everyone, not a privilege for the few.” This seems to be a constant theme throughout many politicians. What Obama plans to do, is set up something called an IOM plan. In this plan he plans to modernize the US health care system to lower costs and improve quality. This plan works by allowing health care to be purchased through a pool similar to that of government employees. Private insurers would then compete to give coverage to people in these pools, which would be high quality, efficient healthcare. He plans to do this by providing affordable premiums, subsidies, simplifying paperwork, mandating the coverage of children, and expansion of Medicare and Medicaid. While 75% of medical expenses are from those who have some form of chronic disease, Obama plans to offer support disease management programs, which will help all patients receive the proper care they need for their specific ailment. Finally, Obama plans to ensure patients get quality care by requiring providers to report preventable medical errors. While most insurers get paid on the volume of services provided instead of quality, Obama will reimburse high quality health care to make sure insurers and doctors are doing the best they can.

Barack Obama has already taken action while in office at a state level. He was a cosponsor of the Medicare informed choice act, which extends Medicare enrollment without penalty to those who are in dire need of it. Obama also helped draft and introduce the National Medic act, which provides compensation to patients injured by medical errors. This allowed for the improvement of the quality of healthcare, along with proper compensation for defects in the healthcare. He also introduced two other acts. The first one being the Hospital Quality Report Card Act, which were requirements to inform and assist patients when making healthcare decisions. The second being the Federal Employees Health Benefits