Tuesday, December 23, 2008

New Stimulus Package To Include Billions For Health Insurance

By Ethan Kalvin

Next year's stimulus package will include large investments in health care and health insurance reform, according to the Washington Post. The package could top $500 billion. There are a few major financial assistance health care programs slated to get a significant funding boost. Here are the programs in question:

SCHIP The State Children's Health Insurance Program is expected to be prominent in the new stimulus package. Though it is regarded as a costly program to get children the health care they need, it has been very successful. It is expected that the Obama budget will help get the program expanded, since Congress has already supported its expansion.

COBRA, which allows the unemployed to continue their health insurance coverage from their previous employer for a designated period of time is also a costly plan. U.S. Representative Pete Stark from California is promoting an expansion of COBRA. His plan proposes providing subsidies to help the unemployed pay for the plan.

MEDICAID The Medicaid program for low-income Americans will receive up to $40 billion in the next two years as part of the stimulus.

In addition to these programs, the stimulus package will likely include some $10 billion as a down payment to help doctors, hospitals, and other health care facilities to implement electronic medical records and streamline offices with computers, wrote the Post article. What will actually be included in the package is of course still up for debate. - 16928

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