The President's Plan for Health Reform

“It will provide more security and stability to those who have health insurance.

It will provide insurance to those who don’t. And it will lower the cost of health care for our families, our businesses, and our government."
– PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA

If You Have Health Insurance,
the President's Plan:

* Ends discrimination against people with pre-existing conditions.
* Limits premium discrimination based on gender and age.
* Prevents insurance companies from dropping coverage when people are sick and need it most.
* Caps out-of-pocket expenses so people don’t go broke when they get sick.
* Eliminates extra charges for preventive care like mammograms, flu shots and diabetes tests to improve health and save money.
* Protects Medicare for seniors.
* Eliminates the “donut-hole” gap in coverage for prescription drugs.


If You Don’t Have Insurance,
the President's Plan:

* Creates a new insurance marketplace — the Exchange — that allows people without insurance and small businesses to compare plans and buy insurance at competitive prices.
* Provides new tax credits to help people buy insurance.
* Provides small businesses tax credits and affordable options for covering employees.
* Offers a public health insurance option to provide the uninsured and those who can’t find affordable coverage with a real choice.
* Immediately offers new, low-cost coverage through a national “high risk” pool to protect people with preexisting conditions from financial ruin until the new Exchange is created.


For All Americans,
the President's Plan:

* Won’t add a dime to the deficit and is paid for upfront.
* Requires additional cuts if savings are not realized.
* Implements a number of delivery system reforms that begin to rein in health care costs and align incentives for hospitals, physicians, and others to improve quality.
* Creates an independent commission of doctors and medical experts to identify waste, fraud and abuse in the health care system.
* Orders immediate medical malpractice reform projects that could help doctors focus on putting their patients first, not on practicing defensive medicine.
* Requires large employers to cover their employees and individuals who can afford it to buy insurance so everyone shares in the responsibility of reform.

all I care about is abolishing the "pre-existing condition" exclusion by the time I get a kidney transplant and lose Medicare

That is a VERY important exclusion to abolish.

it is to me

thats the only thing I'm worrying about

people with transplants have a hard time getting insurance

you lose Medicare coverage three years after the tranplant

the anti rejection drugs will be covered by the Kidney Foundation (please donate often) but the doctor visits and stuff wont be

I'm surprised to hear that you lose Medicare coverage three years after the transplant. That doesn't seem right with the cost of the meds after that.

I will keep an eye out for the Kidney Foundation.

sorry to hijack

but I was amazed at how much the Kidney Foundation does

I have Medicare for 80% coverage

and for the other 20% I have Blue Cross and the Kidney Foundation pays the $700 a month premium for the Blue Cross

before I had Medicare they picked up the total cost of my dialysis, something like $3000 a week

and it's all with donated money

It's a good hijack, Quiet. People are unaware as to how much medical care can cost with transplant patients.

Wow, $3,000 a week. My Grandfather was a dialysis patient. I had no idea of the cost for that. I have a friend that has a brother on dialysis.