Labor Law Center Blog » Blog Archive » A New National Health Care Plan (Cont.)

A New National Health Care Plan (Cont.)

March 17th, 2007 Posted by Mark

You need to fix all of the pieces together, according to Oregon Democrat Senator Ron Wyden. At the heart of the Oregon Senator’s plan is to make changes in the $2 trillion that the United State already spends on health care. You read that right. We spend as a nation more than $2 trillion—trillion with a “t”—on health care, and yet we do not have the best health care system and providers in the world.

Under Wyden’s plan, that $2 trillion would be redistributed to make sure that all of the American employees and otherwise would have health care. In fact, under the Senator’s plan, everybody would have to have health care insurance. Anybody that did not have health care insurance would have to buy into a new so called Healthy Americans Private Insurance plan. Where would they get this new form of insurance? Under the Wyden plan, each state would set up an entirely new department called the Health Help Agency, and it would be up to this Health Help Agency to make sure the Healthy Americans Private Insurance plans worked.

The plans would be set up in each state to work much like the current Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans that today pick up the coverage for state employees. As for us employers, any of us who are not providing insurance for our employees would then have to pay into an insurance fund.

On the other side of health care, the state Health Help Agencies would also funnel through to its citizens preventative wellness programs, and help those with chronic illnesses better manage them through education and preventative medicine. This preventative side of things would help to cut costs by making it so that Americans require less health care in the long run by staying healthier.