Comparison With Obama's Proposals
Barack Obama campaigned in favor of universal health coverage as early as January 2007. A year later, Obama was differentiating his health care proposal from that of his main rival, Hillary Clinton, by saying "he and Clinton have a philosophical disagreement over her proposal to require Americans to purchase health insurance or face a penalty from the government." By July 2008, Obama was saying he would "lower the country's health care costs enough to "bring down premiums by $2,500 for the typical family" based on investments in electronic medical records, a reduction in administrative costs, and an improvement in prevention programs and management of chronic diseases.
After Obama became president-elect, Wyden and Bennett and the bill's cosponsors wrote a letter to him on November 20, 2008, recommending seven goals for health care reform legislation, goals reflected in HAA:
- Ensure that all Americans have health care coverage;
- Make sure health care coverage is affordable and portable;
- Implement strong private insurance market reforms;
- Modernize federal tax rules for health coverage;
- Promote improved disease prevention and wellness activities, as well as better management of chronic illnesses;
- Make health care prices and choices more transparent so that consumers and providers can make the best choices for their health and health care dollars; and
- Improve the quality and value of health care services.
Wyden characterized HAA as "harness the Democratic desire to get everyone covered to the Republican interest in markets and consumer choice" and one that had a reasonable chance of getting 70 votes in the U.S. Senate.
Read more about this topic: Healthy Americans Act
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