Democratic+View+on+Health+Care+Plan

//"Sen. Barack Obama (D, Ill.) and former Sen. John Edwards (D, N.C.) have unveiled comprehensive plans for increasing the number of insured Americans and addressing rising health care costs.// //All three plans share certain themes, such as expanded health information technology, better preventive care and health insurance industry reform. As for access, all would build on the existing employer-sponsored health insurance system, instead of dismantling it the way the single-payer proposal of fellow candidate Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D, Ohio) would.//

//A consensus of ideas//
//Clinton and Obama would allow drug importation, encourage competition from generic drug companies and allow Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices. Obama said the average family would save $2,500 a year through his plan.// //All three candidates would create a best practices institute to compare the effectiveness of treatments and would improve disease management and prevention with public and private initiatives.//

//Boosting the number of insured people//
//Edwards and Obama would expand Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program. Both would create health insurance pools and require employers to contribute to employees' health care.// //Obama would create a national health plan modeled after the insurance program for federal employees. It would be open to people who don't have coverage through work or another public program.// //He also calls for a National Health Insurance Exchange to help people who want to buy private insurance. The exchange would act as a watchdog by creating rules and standards for participating plans. Income-based subsidies would be available on a sliding scale for people who need help paying premiums.// //Obama's plan, unveiled in May, would mandate coverage for all children. It would require full cost and quality transparency from physicians and hospitals.// //Edwards would create sliding-scale, refundable tax credits to help people buy insurance though his proposal's regional insurance pools. These pools would offer choice between competing insurance plans, at least one of which would be modeled after Medicare.// //His plan, released in February, would implement an individual insurance mandate once affordable health insurance was available to all.// //The American Medical Association -- as a member of the Health Coverage Coalition for the Uninsured -- supports offering refundable, advanceable tax credits to help pay for health insurance and improving SCHIP and Medicaid enrollment.// //The American College of Physicians and the American Academy of Family Physicians said they are encouraged by Democrats' discussion of key issues, such as preventive care and financial support for physicians to adopt health IT.// ===// picture from: [] Keeping the employment-based system//=== //The three leading Democratic candidates' health plans are more comprehensive than those of the last decade, health policy analysts said, but don't expect candidates to propose changing the employer-sponsored health care system.// //Millions of Americans are satisfied with their health care, but not with having 45 million uninsured people and ever-increasing health care costs, according to Robert Blendon, ScD, a professor of health policy and political analysis at the Harvard School of Public Health.// //"They're looking for fixing pieces of what we have and trying to take some sort of step about this uninsured issue," Dr. Blendon said.// //It will be a long time before any proposal will be introduced as legislation and fully debated in Congress. But health care will continue to be an important issue in the elections, said Joseph Antos, PhD, a health care scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank.// //"Now that it really is a middle-class issue, it's an issue of staying power," Dr. Antos said.// //Dr. Blendon said the elections will set the course for health care reform. The major parties have very different views on the role of government in health care. "If the country shifts more toward the Democrats, I think there will be some larger initiative," he said."//

infromation from :http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2007/06/18/gvsa0618.htm