Obama ‘closer than ever’ to health reform
pharmafile | February 25, 2010 | News story | Sales and Marketing | Obama, US healthcare
The continuing showdown over health insurance reform in the US reaches its next potential flashpoint today (Thursday) with what is billed as an “open, bipartisan” encounter.
US president Barack Obama will meet Republicans and Democrats to discuss his proposal for the sector, which currently leans heavily on private health insurers.
The US administration says its “closer than ever to making reform a reality”, and today’s meeting will be an opportunity to discuss any additional ideas the two parties have.
Attitudes have so far hardened along party lines, with Democrats broadly in favour of Obama’s reforms and Republicans against.
But Obama has staked his reputation on effecting change in this thorny area. Detractors say reform will represent intolerable government interference and a debt burden the country cannot afford, while supporters argue the current system is iniquitous.
The House of Representatives and Senate have produced their own bills: the former included a government-run health insurance plan – the so-called “public option” – which the Senate’s did not.
Obama’s proposal ignores this radical move but takes in other bits of both plus additional ideas from Republican members of Congress.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said: “We must pass comprehensive, affordable health insurance reform, and I am hopeful that Thursday’s meeting will help us achieve this goal.”
“The cost of inaction is too great for our nation and for every family facing the heartbreaking reality of skyrocketing health care costs and denied care or coverage.”
One of Obama’s ‘big ideas’ is to provide additional federal financing to all states for the expansion of Medicaid, the US health programme for people on low incomes.
From January 2014, all people living on less than $29,000 for a family of four will be eligible, with the government giving each state 100% of the cost of newly-eligible people from 2014-17, 95% from 2018-19 and 90% after that.
Obama would also close the coverage gap in the Medicare prescription drug plan, the system which covers up to $2,700 in yearly prescription costs and then stops until the costs exceed $6,100 per year.
The money in between is referred to by commentators as the ‘donut hole’ and Obama proposes to gradually close the gap – faced by eight million older Americans each year – so that it disappears by 2020.
Last year pharma firms pledged to provide a 50% discount to most patients on branded medicines covered by the programme.
• The meeting, which will be held in Washington DC and streamed over the internet, can be watched live today at 10am EST here.
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