Sen. Joe Biden announces health care plan
Democratic Sen. Joe Biden has officially announced his new health care plan in a speech in Des Moines, Iowa, dubbing it "CARE."
The acronym covers what the presidential candidate sees as the four most important steps necessary to improve health care and ultimately achieve universal coverage: Cover all children, better access for adults, reinsurance for catastrophic illness, and encourage prevention and modernization.
What Biden's plan doesn't do is mandate coverage for all Americans, but he's more in line with Sen. Obama's plan, which emphasizes coverage for all children. Biden would primarily expand the State Children's Health Insurance Plan (SCHIP), an ongoing area of debate in Congress at the moment, especially since the first go-round was vetoed by President Bush.
Biden would also stress access to insurance for all adults, in a major part by allowing Americans to buy into an insurance program similar to the federal program, called the Federal Employee Health Health Benefit Plan (FEHBP).
He also is the only other candidate, along with former Gov. Bill Richardson, to allow people as young as 55 to buy into the Medicare program.
Although there is a provision to provide a subsidy for low-income individuals, Biden says the benefit from preventing chronic illnesses could help cover the expense.
The third step in Biden's program would be reinsurance for catastrophic cases. He cites statistics saying that the top 1% of spenders on health, with expenses above $50,000, account for about 22% of health care spending.
So, Biden would create a federal reinsurance pool to reimburse employers, insurers, or associations for 75% of health costs above this $50,000 limit.
Biden's final step centers on prevention, which echoes his reasoning for bringing people into Medicare sooner. There could be major cost-savings, Biden says (and he's not alone in this, among both Democrats and Republicans), if we could get chronic problems like diabetes, heart disease and obesity under control.
Along with personal prevention, Biden proposes a panel to improve effectiveness of medical treatments and technologies. He would also invest in information technology to improve care and communication, while reducing duplication of services and treatments.
Biden would also allow the federal government to negotiate lower drug prices for the Medicare Part D prescription drug plan. This is prohibited under current law.
Much of this information is included in Biden's current profile in our election special, Health Matters in the 2008 Election, but we're in the process of fine-tuning and adding all of Biden's proposals as I write.
According to a report from the Associated Press, Biden's plan would cost between $80 billion and $100 billion each year, but would be paid for by rolling back tax cuts for the top 1% of Americans, eliminating tax breaks on capital gains and dividends, and plugging tax loopholes for hedge fund managers and private equity partners.
We'll keep you posted.
Sean Swint
Executive Editor, WebMD
(Jarret Cassaniti contributed to this post)
The acronym covers what the presidential candidate sees as the four most important steps necessary to improve health care and ultimately achieve universal coverage: Cover all children, better access for adults, reinsurance for catastrophic illness, and encourage prevention and modernization.
What Biden's plan doesn't do is mandate coverage for all Americans, but he's more in line with Sen. Obama's plan, which emphasizes coverage for all children. Biden would primarily expand the State Children's Health Insurance Plan (SCHIP), an ongoing area of debate in Congress at the moment, especially since the first go-round was vetoed by President Bush.
Biden would also stress access to insurance for all adults, in a major part by allowing Americans to buy into an insurance program similar to the federal program, called the Federal Employee Health Health Benefit Plan (FEHBP).
He also is the only other candidate, along with former Gov. Bill Richardson, to allow people as young as 55 to buy into the Medicare program.
Although there is a provision to provide a subsidy for low-income individuals, Biden says the benefit from preventing chronic illnesses could help cover the expense.
The third step in Biden's program would be reinsurance for catastrophic cases. He cites statistics saying that the top 1% of spenders on health, with expenses above $50,000, account for about 22% of health care spending.
So, Biden would create a federal reinsurance pool to reimburse employers, insurers, or associations for 75% of health costs above this $50,000 limit.
Biden's final step centers on prevention, which echoes his reasoning for bringing people into Medicare sooner. There could be major cost-savings, Biden says (and he's not alone in this, among both Democrats and Republicans), if we could get chronic problems like diabetes, heart disease and obesity under control.
Along with personal prevention, Biden proposes a panel to improve effectiveness of medical treatments and technologies. He would also invest in information technology to improve care and communication, while reducing duplication of services and treatments.
Biden would also allow the federal government to negotiate lower drug prices for the Medicare Part D prescription drug plan. This is prohibited under current law.
Much of this information is included in Biden's current profile in our election special, Health Matters in the 2008 Election, but we're in the process of fine-tuning and adding all of Biden's proposals as I write.
According to a report from the Associated Press, Biden's plan would cost between $80 billion and $100 billion each year, but would be paid for by rolling back tax cuts for the top 1% of Americans, eliminating tax breaks on capital gains and dividends, and plugging tax loopholes for hedge fund managers and private equity partners.
We'll keep you posted.
Sean Swint
Executive Editor, WebMD
(Jarret Cassaniti contributed to this post)
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