Preference on healthcare reform issue

[Riot]

The below is what Obama wants included in the Healthcare Reform act (what he wants in there during reconciliation):

Children with pre-existing conditions will no longer be denied insurance coverage (starts this year)
Lifetime coverage limits will be removed.
You will be covered for preventive care.
You can no longer be denied insurance due to pre-existing conditions.
You can no longer have your rates jacked up or be dropped when you get sick.

Medicare benefits will not be cut.
Medicare holders will get more preventive benefits (like cancer screenings) at no cost
Donut hole gap will be closed for prescription meds

People will keep their own doctors and current coverage in plans they have now (nothing affects or changes that)
No business will be required to provide insurance to their employees.

Businesses who provide insurance to their employees will be protected against arbitrary high rate hikes because one employee gets sick.

Insurance companies cannot charge businesses for coverage based upon individual employee health status

People who do not get insurance through work, and small businesses who do not have insurance for their employees, will be able to purchase the same type of excellent insurance marketplace Government employees & Congress has.

People and companies who still cannot afford this lowered price pool will get some tax cuts to help pay for it (expected to be the largest middle class tax cut in history)

The CBO says people buying health plans in the individual market now will retain the exact same plan, but see their premiums go down 10-14%

Insurance company studies on workplace insurance plans have shown this could reduce premiums for employer-paid work plans by $3000 per employee per year.

CBO says the above plan in total will reduce deficit by one trillion dollars. The Medicare Trust Fund life will be extended 9 years.

[Danzig]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...siness/economy


Deficits higher than Obama forecast: CBO

By Doug Palmer
Reuters
Friday, March 5, 2010; 11:49 PM

President Barack Obama's budget plans would rack up $9.8 trillion more debt by 2020, or $1.2 trillion more than the White House has forecast, the Congressional Budget Office said on Friday.



But working with staff of the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, it made a preliminary estimate that Obama's proposals would boost the budget deficit in fiscal 2010 to $1.5 trillion, or 10.3 percent of U.S. gross domestic product.

"Measured relative to the size of the economy, the deficit under the President's proposals would fall to about 4 percent of GDP by 2014 but would rise steadily thereafter," CBO said


"Under the President's budget, debt held by the public would grow from $7.5 trillion (53 percent of GDP) at the end of 2009 to $20.3 trillion (90 percent of GDP) at the end of 2020," CBO said.