(Akiit.com) One would imagine that living in the industrialized nation of the United States would almost guarantee affordable health care at a standard far above the rest of the world. Unfortunately, this is not the case.
There are 29 other countries with a higher life expectancy than Americans, and there are 38 who have lower rates of infant mortality. Even worse, almost 50 million Americans are without health care, and many others lack affordable health insurance.
President-Elect Barack Obama not only has a vision of a nation without such disparities, but he has a three-fold plan to achieve these transformations. Barack Obama deems the following to be crucial to his ideas:
1. First, affordable and accessible health care should be available to all Americans. There are several ways that Obama plans to succeed in this. Obama believes that prescription medication is more expensive than it needs to be. He proposes that by importing medications from other countries, as well as utilizing generic medications in public programs, the out of pocket expense for those in need of prescriptions would be drastically reduced.
2. Second, Barack Obama would like to see a health care system that is up to date with the available modern technologies. He feels that by doing this, there will be a reduced quantity of medical errors that could potentially be fatal to patients. Research has shown that there are ways in which costs can be lowered, while simultaneously improving the medical care that patients receive.
3. Lastly, the President-Elect would like to see more emphasis on preventative measures. Too often, by the time an individual has been diagnosed with a chronic disease, it is already costing the American people millions and millions of dollars. Many of these chronic diseases can be prevented. With Obama’s plan, preventative measures, such as cancer screenings, will be a requirement.
Despite his repeated refutations, many individuals believe that Obama’s plan for affordable health care is synonymous with “socialized medicine.” On the contrary, this is not the case at all.
As he has stated time after time, those who are satisfied with their current medical insurance coverage will not have to change anything; they will still be able to go to the same doctors, clinics and hospitals. The change would benefit the insured, as their yearly cost would go down by as much as $2,500. Those who don’t have coverage, however, would now have access to affordable health insurance.
Hopefully, time, energy, and effort will prove his plan to be very successful in the near future.
Staff Writer; Jay Moore