Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Law Students Blogs -> Urban Law Journal

Law Students

: Urban Law Journal

Healthcare Reform: Senator Obama

By 3L at Seton Hall University School of Law and Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review.

Senator Obama?s ?plan begins by covering every American? regardless of pre-existing conditions or illnesses, and he will focus on prevention and public health to prevent chronic conditions before they occur. His goal is to offer affordable premiums, co-pays, and deductibles, and to offer subsidies to those that don?t qualify for Medicaid or SCHIP programs. He argues that the establishment of the National Health Insurance Exchange will allow small businesses and individuals without access to other public programs or employer-based coverage the opportunity to enroll in the new public plan or in approved private plans. He would mandate all small business owners to ?contribute a percentage of payroll toward the costs of the national plan? unless meeting specified exceptions. The Illinois Senator would also mandate insurance for all those under the age of 25. By reducing costs of catastrophic illnesses for employers and their employees, he has determined he will save each family $2,500 per year. A common theme for candidates this year is to transition from traditional medical paperwork to electronic records (a plan President Bush has backed), which will cost ?$10 billion a year over the next five years.? The Rand Corporation estimated that widespread use of health information technology could save $70 billion annually, and estimated it would take 15 years to get full adoption of the new technology. His plan will cost an estimated $50-65 billion/year when phased in, a large portion of which will be paid for by allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire for all those making over $250K/year.

Full post as published by Urban Law Journal on February 18, 2008 (boomark / email).