Obama On The Health Care

Specific policy positions

The uninsured: Obama would require parents to insure their children and would allow children up to age 25 to stay on their parents' plans. The goal is to reach universal coverage by 2012. He might consider mandating that all the uninsured buy coverage and would expand eligibility for Medicaid and SCHIP.
Consumer impact: Individuals and businesses could purchase public or private health coverage through a national health insurance exchange. Insurers could not reject applicants because of illness or pre-existing conditions. The benefits would be similar to those for federal employees. Obama would allow some drug imports. He estimates that the plan would lower premiums an average of $2,500 per family.
Economic impact: He would pay for his plan (estimated at $50 billion to $60 billion a year) by allowing President Bush's tax breaks to expire for people with annual incomes above $250,000. Obama would toughen antitrust laws to keep insurers from "overcharging" for malpractice insurance. He would promote the use of generic drugs, create an approval pathway for generic biologic drugs, and allow Medicare to negotiate directly with drug companies.
Employer-provided health insurance: Most employers would have to cover workers, make a "meaningful" contribution to coverage, or contribute to a public health plan. Obama would exempt small businesses and give them a tax credit to help reduce their health care costs. He would reimburse employers for some catastrophic costs, but employers would have to use the money to reduce workers' premiums.
Performance and innovation: Would require medical providers to collect data on costs, quality, errors, nurse-to-patient ratios, and hospital-acquired infections. Federal health care plans would have to use disease-management programs. He also wants to step up efforts to disseminate best-practice information and pay providers more for top-quality care.

Record

SCHIP reauthorization: Voted for 2007 legislation to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program with $35 billion in new funding, financed by a tobacco-tax increase.

Stem-cell research: Sponsored 2006-07 legislation vetoed by President Bush that would have expanded federal funding of embryonic-stem-cell research.

Avian flu: Congress enacted an Obama proposal to establish an interagency task force on avian flu and provide $25 million for international efforts to combat the disease.

Medical errors: With Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., offered an unsuccessful amendment to a 2005 medical-malpractice bill to encourage early disclosure of medical errors, to compensate victims, and to analyze errors.

Key Interest Groups

Service Employees International Union: It endorsed Obama and supports his effort to attain universal coverage, with employers, individuals, and government sharing the financial burden. The union backs the use of electronic medical records that patients control, and it supports making information about the quality and cost of medical services available to the public.

American Hospital Association: Like Obama, the hospital group favors expansion of government health care programs, focusing on children first.

Families USA: It doesn't endorse candidates, but the group clearly favors Obama's health care proposal. "I think Senator Obama would move us very substantially in the direction of meaningful health reform to make health care more affordable and accessible," Executive Director Ron Pollack said.

America's Health Insurance Plans: The group shares several health care priorities with Obama, including expanding eligibility for government programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP.

Key advisers

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Cutler

David Cutler, professor of applied economics at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, is in charge of Obama's health care team. During the Clinton administration, Cutler served on the White House Council of Economic Advisers and the National Economic Council. One of the first things he did as Obama's health care chief was to recruit David Blumenthal, the director of the Institute for Health Policy at Massachusetts General Hospital, a professor of medicine and policy at Harvard University, and a doctor of internal medicine. Also advising Obama on health care are Jeffrey Liebman, a professor of public policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government; Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former Democratic presidential contender John Edwards; and Sara Bianchi, an investment adviser to hedge fund Eton Park. Bianchi was policy director for John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign and a health care adviser to Al Gore's 2000 campaign.