Sridhar Krishnaswami
Washington, Jun 28 | Press Trust of India
Taking a tough stand against outsourcing, the presumptive Democratic nominee Senator Barack Obama said that the choice is between giving tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas or give benefit to those corporations that keep jobs domestically.
"We can keep giving tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas, or we can give tax benefits to companies that invest right here in New Hampshire," Senator Obama said at a joint appearance with Senator Hillary Clinton in Unity, New Hampshire.
"We can have a tax code that rewards wealth and hands out billions of dollars more to big corporations and multimillionaires. Or we can provide a USD 1,000 tax cut to 95 per cent of families in America, start rewarding work and not just wealth, and eliminate income taxes for seniors making USD 50,000 a year or less," Obama said, adding that's an agenda for change that we can believe in. That's the choice that we can make in this election.
"We can allow millions of Americans to work full-time but still not make enough to support their families, or we can raise the minimum wage, index it to inflation, and ensure that hard work pays off in America," the Illinois Senator said. - PTI
Showing posts with label Hillary Clinton. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hillary Clinton. Show all posts
Keeping healthcare reform on the front burner
NO SINGLE reform would do as much to improve the wealth of our nation and the lives of Americans as a comprehensive overhaul of our healthcare system. But the best chance of swift and major reform may have died with the end of Hillary Clinton's run for the White House.
Senator Clinton kept healthcare on the front burner, promising action in her first term. Healthcare has already slipped as the top domestic concern, a position it held earlier in the campaign for the first time since the last Clinton campaign in 1992. The economy has passed it. But you can't have a healthy economy without a functioning healthcare system.
Unfortunately, there are no easy fixes, no simple wands that can be waved to solve what ails our healthcare delivery system. Also, there are far too many constituents to alienate along the way.
America should be the envy of the world when it comes to delivering healthcare, since we pay more per capita than any other nation, soon nearly 20 percent of our gross domestic product. In many areas of medicine, particularly in research, we are leading the world. But in others, we are not keeping pace.
We have the second-worst newborn mortality rate in the industrialized world, and rank highest in preventable medical errors. Even worse, one in six Americans has no access to high-quality medical care. What we need from the next president is real leadership and a vision for changing what's wrong with our healthcare system.
Senators John McCain and Barack Obama have reform plans that take divergent paths, neither of which is as comprehensive as Clinton's. Obama would require that children have health coverage, but not adults. The problem with that is if there is no mandate for adults, the young and the healthy will opt out, leaving the older and sicker in the system. This would likely force premiums up.
Obama takes a page from the Massachusetts health reform law and would require employers to offer "meaningful coverage" or contribute to a new public plan for the uninsured and small businesses. He also says health insurance would be more affordable with lower co-pays and deductibles, and he would require insurers to offer coverage without exclusion for preexisting conditions. He would also allow those without insurance through an employer to buy into plans now available to some federal employees.
McCain's plan follows the Republican playbook, that the answer is to cut costs and inspire all Americans to buy insurance by means of tax incentives. His plan would end the tax deduction that employers get for their share of employees' premiums, thus undercutting the employer base of most families' insurance. Instead, he would give families a $5,000 tax credit toward any coverage they buy.
The McCain camp says the tax credit should encourage insurance companies to develop plans that come in at that price, no easy task in high-cost states like Massachusetts. He would encourage competition by allowing insurance to be sold across state lines.
Both plans fall short, and neither truly promises universal access. McCain's plan is particularly radical in that it would eliminate the "safety net" that employees have come to value and would undoubtedly put more of the cost of healthcare directly on individuals and families. It would likely swell the numbers of uninsured rather than reduce them. Furthermore, individual insurance sold on the open market is inevitably more inefficient for insurers and more expensive for consumers. It may make it harder for those with chronic conditions to get health insurance.
There are three areas the next president must focus on, and all three must be in balance: making sure every American has health insurance, improving the quality of care, and controlling costs. Viable solutions to our nation's healthcare crisis will require a bold plan for action, not rhetoric. We can thank Clinton for driving that point home. Whether her health plan was right or wrong, she was tenacious and brave, and her plan was the most comprehensive and detailed. We should demand the same from McCain and Obama.
Ellen Lutch Bender is president and CEO of Bender Strategies LLC, a Boston-based healthcare consulting firm. 
A look at the presidential candidates' health care proposals
Sunday, June 8, 2008
As candidates campaign for the nation's highest office, they make promises about reforming health care. Actually delivering on those promises can be another matter entirely.
A visit to the Cape Girardeau Senior Center revealed that most retired people there that day had Medicare and a supplement and were, for the most part, satisfied with them. Some have found they unexpectedly had to dip into their savings to pay for health care costs.
Brenda Hargrave, part-time administrative assistant at the center, has looked at the health care proposals from candidates John McCain, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. She said that while she has not yet decided whom she will vote for, she believes Obama has the best proposal.
But any real kind of health care reform will not come from anyone running for office, Hargrave said.
"While [Obama] addresses concerns, there are things going on that if they would enforce what they already have in place, the government would be out a lot less money now," she said.
Hargrave said she has 30 years' experience in medical billing, collecting and management. She has seen first hand where reform needs to take place, she said.
Health care reform, she said, should start with the "usual and customary rates," or UCR, established by Medicare and Medicaid. Medicare/Medicaid providers say they will pay 80 percent of an insured person's medical costs, but in fact pay an amount based on what they consider "usual and customary," often less than what a doctor or hospital charges. Physicians and hospitals write off the difference and recoup it from patients with private insurance or uninsured patients who are expected to pay full price for procedures, often in advance of being treated, Hargrave said.
"If doctors participate in Medicare they're not allowed to charge more than a certain amount. Some doctors refuse to take any new Medicare patients because they know they can't get any more money," she said. "They leave room on their schedule for other patients with private health insurance because they know they will get more money."
"Everybody needs the same UCR, whether private, Medicare, Medicaid or whatever. No insurance should be charged more than the UCR; UCR should be established across the board."
Better oversight on Medicare/Medicaid billing could save hundreds of thousands of dollars, Hargrave contends.
"I have personal knowledge of one Medicare patient who had a problem with Medicare," she said. "I kept billing, trying to get them to pay. When they did pay, they paid 20 times for the same office procedure. The money went in that patient's account as a credit. I was told not to return credits until somebody found them."
When she made one company aware of double billing for a one-time procedure, she said "nothing was done about it. That's why insurance costs are out of line."
Hargrave said more people should monitor their doctors' office billing procedures and codes and compare what is being charged with the work actually delivered.
"If we could get that done, then health insurance will be within reason and the government will have a lot more money," she said.
Hargrave said she would like to see part-time employees have access to the same insurance as full-time employees. For a semiretired person not yet on Medicare, the cost of health insurance leaves little money for other living expenses. Yet some companies, she said, will hire several part-time people to avoid the cost of providing insurance for a full-time employee.
Monitoring costs and codes would be frustrating and time-consuming for most people. Karen Riley of Cape Girardeau said she and her husband, Dean, are both on Medicare and have a supplemental policy. Both Medicare and the supplement pay for mammograms.
"I called Southeast Missouri Hospital to see if it is in the network," she said. "They said yes. But the doctor who read it was out of network. Since Jan. 15, both insurance companies are arguing over who is going to pay the bill. It has still not been paid."
Riley said she and her husband pay high premiums for their supplemental insurance, partly because she has a pre-existing condition. They dipped into their savings to pay for medical costs and insurance premiums after her husband, who worked at Southeast Missouri State University in the facilities management department, required knee surgery and retired early as a result. While he was working, the university covered the cost of his health care premiums. Until both qualified for Medicare, their monthly costs after he retired meant "we were paying money we could have spent on something else," she said. "It's got to stop somewhere. We can't keep on paying and paying and paying. You can save for retirement, but when you're saving you don't anticipate your medical costs going up and up and up."
Nor did she anticipate that just changing doctors would result in the second doctor asking for lab tests that had already been done not long before that, "so they can get more money."
Riley said she believes Clinton has the best health care proposal.
"She is saying lower premiums and give better quality insurance," Riley said.
Harry Floyd, a retired business owner, said he was considering dropping his supplemental policy because he could pay out of pocket for health expenses for less than his $145-a-month premium. His table companions urged him to keep it, saying they envied him that low premium and warning him that his medical expenses could go up drastically with one illness. Floyd is one of the few not adversely affected by health care costs. He said he supports Clinton because "she has the background. Her husband was president, so she knows a little bit about the ins and outs.
"I figure most wives know what their husbands do and she has a little insight."
Hargrave said that at whatever level health care reform comes, it has less to do with whomever is elected than with the person at the bureaucratic level chosen to implement and manage it. She said she told that to U.S. Rep. Kenny Hulshof when he campaigned at the senior center in his bid for governor.
"I told [him] if anybody is going to reform the health system, it needs to be somebody who knows what he is doing and knows what the program is all about, not somebody who donated money to a campaign," she said.
This article was printed in the June edition of TBY (The Best Years), a special publication of the Southeast Missourian.
Clinton's hardline view on outsourcing were not against India
8 May, 2008, 1541 hrs IST, PTI
The Economic Times.
The Economic Times.
WASHINGTON: Democratic Presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton's recent hardline stance on outsourcing were mainly directed against China rather than India, her top aide has said.
"Her primary language has been directed towards China. Obviously, she talks about China all the time. I've never heard her in fairness, talk about (outsourcing) in the context of India," Terry McAuliffe, Chairman of Hillary Clinton's campaign and one of her closest confidant said in an interview to 'India Abroad' newspaper.
"... We are going to rid the tax code of these loopholes and giveaways. We're going to stop giving a penny of your money to anybody who ships a job out of Texas, Ohio or anywhere else to another country," Clinton had said during a recent debate with Obama at University of Texas in Austin.
McAuliffe, the former Chair of the Democratic National Committee also brushed aside the notion that Clinton was pandering to the labour unions on the issue of outsourcing.
"What she has said, is she will negotiate, she wants trade deals, she thinks they are important to build bilateral economic relationships. She will negotiate fair, but tough trade deals. She is a full believer that we've got to build jobs here, in this country," he said.
He said: "We've got to be competitive, but if people can come in or people that can bring products in and if it's a better product at a better price, then we have to be competitive, and that's not the fault of the country that's bringing it in.
"Her primary language has been directed towards China. Obviously, she talks about China all the time. I've never heard her in fairness, talk about (outsourcing) in the context of India," Terry McAuliffe, Chairman of Hillary Clinton's campaign and one of her closest confidant said in an interview to 'India Abroad' newspaper.
"... We are going to rid the tax code of these loopholes and giveaways. We're going to stop giving a penny of your money to anybody who ships a job out of Texas, Ohio or anywhere else to another country," Clinton had said during a recent debate with Obama at University of Texas in Austin.
McAuliffe, the former Chair of the Democratic National Committee also brushed aside the notion that Clinton was pandering to the labour unions on the issue of outsourcing.
"What she has said, is she will negotiate, she wants trade deals, she thinks they are important to build bilateral economic relationships. She will negotiate fair, but tough trade deals. She is a full believer that we've got to build jobs here, in this country," he said.
He said: "We've got to be competitive, but if people can come in or people that can bring products in and if it's a better product at a better price, then we have to be competitive, and that's not the fault of the country that's bringing it in.
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