Thursday February 26, 2009
Navivest

President Obama is today, expected to announce the formation of a $634 billion healthcare reserve fund, that will be used to pay for his insurance plan. The reserve fund, which will only cover roughly half the expected cost of the President’s plan to ensure that every American has health insurance, will be raised through taxes on the wealthiest of Americans as well as efficiencies in Medicare.
Under a ten year plan, the reserve fund will receive $30 billion annually by limiting the amount that households that earn over $250,000 can claim in deductions on items such as mortgage payments. Another $30 billion annually, will come from expected savings that will be realized through the introduction of competitive bidding by private insurers who offer Medicare to seniors.

The fund is also expected to be funded, to the tune of $8.1 billion, by having seniors pay more for their prescriptions.

The announcement will come just two days after President Obama in a speech to congress, mentioned plans for a “substantial down payment” for healthcare expansion.

Healthcare reform was a major campaign issue for the President. However his plans and the costs thereof, to extend coverage to the 48 million Americans that currently do not have health insurance, is sure to ignite a war with republicans who are up in arms about the ballooning deficit and the fact that they are opposed to the government getting further into the insurance business.

Tags: health insurance  healthcare reform  obama health plan