During the past two days we have looked at how the new Obama Administration can be expected to address social security and pensions, today we want to check BarackObama.com for his healthcare proposals.

The issue with healthcare is very simple: We have wonderful medical treatments and terrific doctors in the U.S. Very rich people from all over the world come here for medical care. The problem: The cost of healthcare is so great that many of us either cannot afford it or can only access the medical system by giving up the assets acquired over a lifetime.

The Obama proposals — as outlined below — suggest a far more accessible healthcare system. But we need to go further to assure that everyone, without exception, has access to medical care.

Some will scream “socialism” when the concept of universal medical care is mentioned, but labels mean nothing.

What’s important is that someone with an untreated disease doesn’t infect the rest of us, that all children have vaccines (a proposal vetoed in 2007 by President Bush) and that in no case does the cost of medical care force people into bankruptcy — no one should be impoverished because they have cancer, MS or any of a thousand other diseases.

The Obama proposals look like this:

Provide Cheaper Prescription Drugs: Our seniors pay the highest prices in the world for brand-name drugs. To lower drug costs, Obama and Biden will allow the federal government to negotiate for lower drug prices for the Medicare program, just as it does to lower prices for our veterans. They also support allowing seniors to import safe prescription drugs from overseas, and will prevent pharmaceutical companies from blocking cheap and safe generic drugs from the market. (Comment: Wal-Mart — to its credit — is knocking down prescription prices but more needs to be done. For instance, drug stores should be allowed to advertise prescription prices so individuals can easily compare costs.)

Protect and Strengthen Medicare: Obama and Biden are committed to the long-term strength of the Medicare program. They will reduce waste in the Medicare system, including eliminating subsidies to the private insurance Medicare Advantage program, and tackle fundamental health care reform to improve the quality and efficiency of our healthcare system. They support closing the “doughnut hole” in the Medicare Part D prescription drug program.

Provide Transparency to Medicare Prescription Drug Plans: Many seniors are enrolled in Medicare prescription drug plans that are actually more expensive for them than other available plans. Obama and Biden will require companies to send Medicare beneficiaries a full list of the drugs and fees they paid the previous year to help seniors determine which plans can better reduce their out-of-pocket costs and improve their health.

Strengthen Long-Term Care Options: As president, Obama will work to give seniors choices about their care, consistent with their needs, and not biased towards institutional care. He will work to reform the financing of long term care to protect seniors and families. He will work to improve the quality of elder care, including by training more nurses and health care workers.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 at 3:00 am and is filed under Topics for Seniors . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.