About Obama's health care plan

Lately there has been a lot of talk about President Obama’s health care plan. One of the reasons given for the plan is to control health care spending.

Obama's Council of Economic Advisers report shows that since 1975, annual health spending per person, adjusted for inflation, has grown 2.1 percent points faster than overall economic growth per person. If this trend continues, the council projects that health spending will grow to 34 percent of gross domestic product by 2040, which is a third of the economy. In 1960, health spending was 5 percent of the economy gross domestic product and is believed to be almost 18 percent today.

Just in 2007, $2.2 trillion dollars was spent on health care. This works out to be roughly $7,421 per person. At this rate, many Americans spend more on health care than on housing or food. According to the Congressional Budget Office, if rapid health cost growth persists by 2025, one of every four dollars in our national economy will be tied up in the health system.

President Obama believes that health care needs to be reformed to reduce long-term growth of health care costs for businesses and government. It needs to protect families from bankruptcy or debt because of health care costs and guarantee choice of doctors and health plans. The President also believes that the reformed plan needs to invest in prevention and wellness, improve patient safety and quality of care and assure affordable, quality health coverage for all Americans. In addition, the President Obama feels that it needs to maintain coverage when you change or lose your job and end barriers to coverage for people with pre-existing medical conditions.

President Obama feels that most importantly, the reformed health care needs to cover the 46 million Americans whom do not have insurance. Many opposed to the plan feel that the increase in coverage will lead to a substantial increase in health spending.

They feel that the way the plan is being mapped out will increase not only premiums but also government spending. Those who follow this argument believe that what the President’s plan is lacking is an overhaul of the fee-for-service payment system.

Many strongly believe that the fee-for-service payment system is the main reason why health spending is so high and likely to get higher. As President Obama’s health plan will greatly affect all of us, I look forward to continuing to follow the debate in Congress over the upcoming months. As with all matters concerning state government, I want to hear your opinions and suggestions concerning these issues.

Please contact me in my Columbia office located at 602 Gressette Office Building. You can reach me, or a member of my staff in Columbia at (803) 212-6008 or by fax at (803) 212-6011. My district office is located at 137 Airport Road, Suite J, Mullins, SC 29574, the phone number is (843) 423-8237 and the fax number is (843) 431-6049. You may also email me at WILLIAMSK@scsenate.org. As always, I also want to supply you with my business phone number so that you will able to reach me easily at any time. My business phone is (843) 423-3904.