by Ofuoma Odje

Created on: April 14, 2009   Last Updated: April 16, 2009

Barack Obama's Universal Healthcare Plan

Universal health care is a Government sponsored system for the healthcare of all its residents regardless of their medical condition or financial status. Is this feasible America? And is it the best for American Businesses?

As the push for the Barack Obama proposed Universal Healthcare heats up on Capitol Hill many argue about the merits and demerits of a Universal Healthcare system.

Experts estimate Americans without Healthcare insurance to be as many as 47 million. At the same time, Healthcare spending in the United States account for about 15% of its GDP, the highest in any industrialized nation.

Nationalized healthcare models are being used in Countries like Canada and Great Britain and residents of those countries are fully covered by the State. There are questions however, about the quality of healthcare services received under those models.

Perhaps we couldn't make an argument as to whether the health insurance based model being used in the U.S today would have also proven successful in Canada and in the UK or other European Countries because they never adopted such a model in the first place.

Good or bad we must critique the whole idea of a nationalized healthcare system in the U.S. There are arguments ranging from the insinuation that the Government is no good at running anything and that the current U.S healthcare system is the best in the world and should not be tinkered with by the Government, to arguments that Healthcare coverage is a right to U.S citizens and residents rather than a privilege as it is today.

It would seem that a good place to start is to find out who stands to gain the most and who stands to loose the most from a nationalized healthcare system.

The increasing cost of employee Healthcare in U.S is a cause of a lot of concern in Corporate America and many Executives are speaking out about the impact on earnings and the ability of U.S businesses to remain competitive on a Global scale whilst carrying this burden. Employees have also expressed concerns about the rising cost of their share of health insurance premiums.

Major U.S Employers like Wal-Mart and General Mills have been some of the recent proponents of Universal Healthcare that have argued that the current Health Insurance Model is simply unsustainable going forward.

There is little doubt that the Barack Obama Universal Healthcare plan cannot take off without broad reforms and enactment of regulations to govern the provision of health coverage

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