Obama's health care plan blends the House and Senate proposals. Image from Flickr.

The Obama health care plan, in its most recent incarnation, is now available for all to see on the White House web site. Of course, it’s a very lengthy document and some parts are a little hard to understand, so I have composed a summary focusing on the parts that have changed since the last health care bill was made public.

Obama’s health care plan contains elements from both the House and Senate versions of the bill, but the White House site says it more closely resembles the senate version. One important question people want to know up front is how the government will pay for Obama’s health care plan. People don’t want to see the feds take out another cash loan and incur more national debt.

Paying for the Obama health care plan

The White House site says the bill will make health care more affordable:

The House and Senate health insurance bills lower premiums through increased competition, oversight, and new accountability standards set by insurance exchanges.  The bills also provide tax credits and reduced cost sharing for families with modest income. The President’s Proposal improves the affordability of health care by increasing the tax credits for families.

Low- and middle-income families also will get tax breaks to help pay for health insurance. Check out a table of income levels and tax breaks.

Crackdown

Part of Obama’s health care plan focuses on cracking down on waste, fraud and abuse. The bill creates a comprehensive sanctions database and calls for registration and background checks of billing agencies and individuals. It expands access to the health care integrity and protection data bank.

The president’s proposal also aims to ensure that people have access to mental health care. It also provides the ability for real-time data review and increases sanctions for committing Medicare or Medicaid fraud. Read a full list of crackdown measures.

In the long run

As far as making sure the cost of Obama’s health care plan can continue to be sustainable, the web site says:

President’s Proposal creates a set of benchmark payments at different percentages of the current average fee-for-service costs in an area.  It phases these benchmarks in gradually in order to avoid disruption to beneficiaries, taking into account the relative payments to fee-for-service costs in an area.

The plan also will delay and reform the high-cost plan excise tax, broaden Medicare hospital insurance, increase fees on brand-name prescriptions and close tax loopholes to prevent unjustified tax shelters. You can read about more improvements and view a searchable copy of the Obama health care plan at WhiteHouse.gov.

Will Obama graduate from the presidency with honors? Image from Wikimedia.

President of the United States Barack Obama on Sunday night appeared on both “60 Minutes” and a special Oprah Winfrey show called “Christmas at the White House.” As usual, more people are interested in what happened on Oprah’s show than anything else. Specifically, the masses are evaluating whether they agree with Obama’s figurative report card, which he filled out himself.

Oprah asked Obama what grade he’d give himself on his time thus far in office. “A good, solid B-plus,” he said. Now, before you take out no fax loans and start making picket signs reflecting which grade you’d give the president, here’s the logic behind Obama’s B-plus. Study up, y’all, this is bound to come up at the dinner table or the bar at some point.

Foreign security

Obama believes the war in Iraq is beginning to wind down and he pointed out that many troops have been withdrawn from Iraq. He also says he believes the U.S. has the best possible plan in place for Afghanistan.

He also mentioned that the world’s perception of the U.S. has greatly improved. He said America has “reset” its prestige. The U.S. also has been instrumental in halting the development of nuclear weapons in Iran and North Korea.

The economy

Though many households are not yet feeling the results of the ever-so-slowly growing economy, Obama confirmed what economics experts have been saying, which is that the economy is back on track and making positive progress.

The unemployment rate dropped in November to 10 percent from 10.2 percent in October. Obama said during his year as president, the economy has stabilized and is now growing. The country avoided another Great Depression after enduring the worst recession since then.

Popularity contest

Though Oprah and Obama are decidedly pretty chummy, Oprah will be Oprah. She asked the president to respond to his dwindling popularity in the polls. Obama said he was surprised his numbers had held up as well as they did with 10 percent of the population unemployed.

What does it take to get an A?

President Obama said that if a health care plan had been passed, he would have given himself an A-minus. He said he recognizes there are still a lot of things undone, and that’s why he didn’t give himself a higher grade. There is still time for Obama’s B-plus to change to an A-minus if the health care bill passes this year.