Obama Unveils Plan to Reduce Spending on Health Care

Pushing for comprehensive care

President Barack Obama and a group of several different types of health care providers have joined forces and promised to stem the increase in spending on health care in the United States.

Both the health industry leaders and the White House administration intend for this move to bring the country closer to having comprehensive health care for everyone in the United States.

A common goal

Obama ultimately strives to make health care more readily available and affordable for Americans. Hospital representatives, doctors, insurance companies and drug makers were all present at the announcement made at the White House today.

These health-care industry representatives pledged to sharply reduce the growth the country has seen over the years in spending on health care. Perhaps now fewer Americans will have to weigh the options of whether to get personal loans to cover health care costs or skip preventative procedures.

Slow going

The New York Times explains that this move does not mean the health-care industry has promised to reduce costs:

The pledge, if kept, would not reduce overall health spending but merely slow its growth. Still, White House officials said the plan could save $2,500 a year for a family of four in the fifth year, and a total of $2 trillion for the country over 10 years.

The hope is to make a move to comprehensive health insurance less expensive to the federal government.

Changing times

An article in the New York Times compares today’s announcement with Bill Clinton’s efforts to reform health care during his presidency in the ’90s:

The pledge from some of the very groups that helped block President Bill Clinton’s efforts at health-care overhaul in 1993-94 — crippling any chance of such change for years — appeared to bolster Mr. Obama’s hopes. … The seeming inevitability of some sort of major overhaul appears to be driving the hospitals, insurers and drug makers to seek a larger role than they had in the ’90s in shaping the legislation.

Obama said the change is due to the widespread recognition that more and more United States citizens every day are in need of aid with the cost of health care. Also, so many other developed countries have universal health care, and that has made the system more appealing and palatable to those who once opposed health care reform.

Provider pledge

The written pledge from six industry leaders reads:

“We will do our part to achieve your administration’s goal of decreasing by 1.5 percentage points the annual health care spending growth rate, saving $2 trillion or more. This represents more than a 20 percent reduction in the projected rate of growth.”