President Barack Obama
President Obama has released a proposed budget outline for 2010 that includes a downpayment on universal health care coverage. Obama identified eight key principles for health care reform:
- Aim for universality
- Maintain choice of insurance and doctors
- Ensure affordable coverage
- Protect Americans financial health
- Invest in prevention and wellness
- Improve patient safety and quality of care
- Be fiscally responsible and sustainable
- Provide portability
Carol Regan, director of PHI’s Health Care for Health Care Workers initiative, applauded the budget: “This is a signficant step forward, and I urge Congress to act this year to ensure quality affordable health care for all Americans, including tens of thousands of uninsured direct-care workers.”
The proposal, while endorsed by many health reform advocates, immediately sparked controversy over proposed methods of paying for the program. Obama proposes creating a $634 milllion reserve fund over the next ten years, in part by cutting Medicare payments to private insurers who currently receive 114 percent of traditional fee-for-service payments.
A press release picked up by Reuters (“National and CA Elder Care Providers React to Obama Budget: Medicare Cuts May Further Weaken Economy“) announced a media teleconference to be held on Feb. 27 for the purpose of detailing “how the Obama budget blueprint will cut Medicare — jeapordizing quality senior care and weaken[ing] major drivers of economic activity.”
The New York Times endorsed Obama’s proposal with an editorial declaring, “the president has made health care reform a top priority, and this plan is a sound start.”
