New Health Insurance: Showpiece or Stumbling Block?

It is summer, and a short treatise on health insurance is certainly not a summer subject. But now that several committees in the United States Congress are tackling health insurance reform, it would be irresponsible to ignore this issue.

Bill Clinton

This is all the more important, because Barack Obama is hoping a thorough reform of the system will rank as the most important (domestic) showpiece of his presidency. Approximately 47 million Americans have no health insurance.

At the beginning of his term in office, Bill Clinton, with the help of his wife, Hillary, wanted to bring about a complete change. This attempt resulted in a tragic failure (later, Clinton was able to revamp social assistance).

Nervousness

The vested interests here are large and often very diverse. Moreover, that each plan meant to do things differently leads to the allergic and thus incorrect reaction that the U.S. is on the verge of following the United Kingdom and of switching to a system that looks like the National Health system, just like two peas in a pod. The latter cannot be said of Obama’s proposed reforms, even with the worst intentions in the world.

Among his party members, who for a while already have not thought alike on this issue, one can detect nervousness over a “good ending.” “Alliances in the debate over health care shatter,” wrote the Washington Post. The deficit will increase further, and the governors of both parties fear that the plans are going to cost their states too much money. For the first time Obama scored less than 50 percent in polls on the manner in which he is handling the issue.

Eventually, all bills circulating in both houses of Congress and in the various committees have to be blended into a definitive legislative proposal. It is not there yet, and it will not get there before the summer recess.

In the meantime, the House of Representatives has finished its work. According to the New York Times, this draft bill would eliminate the lion’s share of the problems associated with those without health insurance, without significantly increasing the deficit.

Every American

The idea is, among others, that those who already receive health insurance from their employer would be taxed for this, and that a tax increase would be implemented for those who earn over $280,000 per year, a group benefited disproportionately from tax cuts during the Bush era. Virtually every American would be compulsorily insured.

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that, should this plan reach the finish line, 97 percent of Americans will be insured by 2015.