The Obama Healthcare Plan Has My Vote

As over 47 million Americans are currently without any form of health insurance, the issue of healthcare has become a very major one for both presidential candidates.

The Obama Plan for universal healthcare would guarantee that all Americans would be covered by the end of his first term in office. It would provide all Americans with access to the same type of healthcare benefits currently enjoyed by members of Congress. It would allow for the treatment of all essential services such as preventative medicine, maternity care and disease management. Individuals who can’t afford the premiums would be given federal subsidies to make the premiums affordable.

On the other hand, the McCain Health Plan doesn't stand up to the light of reason, given the rising costs of health care in the United States. Under the McCain Plan, Americans have to shop for health insurance with their own money and would receive a tax rebate of $2,500 per individual and $5,000 per family. Under the McCain Plan, employers would no longer get a tax deduction for providing health insurance to their employees. Simply put, the McCain Plan would give employers an excuse not to provide health benefits to their employees because the tax incentive to do so would be taken away.

The Obama Healthcare Plan would do the following:

Reduce the cost for businesses
Reduce costs by improving the quality of care that patients will receive
Eligibility would be guaranteed
There will be comprehensive benefits similar to the benefits received by members of Congress
Co-pays, deductibles, and premiums would be more affordable
Enrollment would be made easy
Paper work would be simplified and health costs reined in
Healthcare plans would become portable, meaning that employees would be able to move a plan from one job to another without interruption of coverage
Large employers would be required to cover their employees or pay a fine
No one will be turned away for pre-existing conditions
All Americans would be covered

It is my view that the McCain plan would do nothing to solve America’s healthcare crisis; it would encourage more employers to drop healthcare coverage for their employees and would lead to a swelling of the ranks of the uninsured.

The Obama Plan offers hope for the uninsured; it would shift the charity care burden away from healthcare institutions like Muhlenberg to the federal government and would allow for better delivery of healthcare to urban communities.

The Obama plan has my vote.

Barack Obama for America

Many of you know that I am originally from a tiny paradise, an Edenic gem in the Caribbean sea known as Barbados. In Barbados, often times, one erects a galvanized fence known as a paling (informally as palin’) to insulate one’s property from others and to keep people out. But in the past couple of weeks, we have all come to know another "Palin."

Let me just say this to my Plainfield neighbors and to all Americans: no amount of palin’ can insulate John McCain from the failed policies of the Bush administration. No amount of palin’ can protect John McCain from the fact that he has embraced these misguided policies, and no amount of palin’ can keep Barack Obama out of the White House.

This election is about who is best suited to lead this nation at this time and who is most committed to bringing about the change that America needs; it is not an election about race and it certainly is not one about gender.

This election is about who is committed to investing in renewable sources of energy to help reduce our reliance on foreign oil while protecting our environment; it is not about who best advances the interests of big oil by allowing big oil to drill in the Arctic.

This election is about who can best fight for all Americans by pursuing a foreign policy agenda that can most adequately protect our nation while reducing the threat of another war in the Persian Gulf; it is not about who has fought in wars for this country.

Our next president must spend less on fighting wars abroad and must commit more federal dollars to local municipalities to more effectively fight the war against crime and the epidemic of illegal drugs in our neighborhoods.

Our next president must commit to a system of universal healthcare to provide adequate affordable healthcare to every American, a system that would ensure the continued viability of healthcare institutions like Muhlenberg Hospital.

I urge all Plainfielders to vote for change on November 4th.

• Vote to restore the health of the nation’s economy.
  


• Vote for healthcare for the 45 million Americans who are currently without any form of healthcare.
  


• Vote to put more teachers in the nation’s classrooms so that the notion of “no child left behind” can become a reality rather than just an empty phrase.
  

Vote for Barack Obama to become the next president of this, the greatest nation on earth.

Regards, Adrian