Department+of+Health+and+Human+Services

The new Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, was recently sworn in to help with the Swine Flu epidemic and to help with the consequences that will follow in the future.

(In millions of dollars)|| || Actual ||||~ Estimate ||
 * Department of Health and Human Services**
 * ~  ||~ 2006
 * ^  ||~ 2007 ||~ 2008 ||
 * **Spending** ||  ||   ||   ||
 * Discretionary Budget Authority: ||  ||   ||   ||
 * Food and Drug Administration || 1,449 || 1,490 || 1,641 ||
 * //Program level (non-add)// || //1,876// || //1,821// || //2,085// ||
 * Health Resources and Services Administration || 6,576 || 6,543 || 5,708 ||
 * Indian Health Service || 3,045 || 3,059 || 3,271 ||
 * Centers for Disease Control and Prevention || 5,972 || 5,812 || 5,762 ||
 * National Institutes of Health || 28,242 || 28,450 || 28,700 ||
 * Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration || 3,204 || 3,205 || 3,046 ||
 * Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality || — || — || — ||
 * //Program level (non-add)// || //319// || //319// || //330// ||
 * Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services 1 || 3,120 || 3,076 || 3,240 ||
 * MedPAC || 10 || 10 || 10 ||
 * Discretionary Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control || — || — || 183 ||
 * Administration for Children and Families || 13,695 || 13,706 || 12,329 ||
 * Administration on Aging || 1,362 || 1,367 || 1,335 ||
 * General Departmental Management || 362 || 355 || 392 ||
 * Office for Civil Rights || 35 || 35 || 37 ||
 * Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology || 42 || 42 || 90 ||
 * //Program level (non-add)// || //61// || //61// || //118// ||
 * Office of Medicare Appeals || 59 || 59 || 70 ||
 * Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund || 102 || 250 || 1,754 ||
 * Program Support Center: Medicare eligible retiree accrual || 34 || 36 || 37 ||
 * Office of the Inspector General || 39 || 39 || 45 ||
 * Total, Discretionary budget authority || 67,349 || 67,533 || 67,650 ||
 * //Memorandum: Budget authority from enacted supplementals// || //5,702// || //—// || //—// ||
 * Total, Discretionary outlays || 71,104 || 72,437 || 72,428 ||
 * Mandatory Outlays: ||  ||   ||   ||
 * Medicare: ||  ||   ||   ||
 * Existing law || 324,911 || 367,485 || 390,782 ||
 * Legislative proposal || — || — || −4,696 ||
 * Medicaid/SCHIP: ||  ||   ||   ||
 * Existing law || 186,076 || 197,488 || 209,310 ||
 * Legislative proposal || — || 35 || −297 ||
 * All other programs: ||  ||   ||   ||
 * Existing law || 33,949 || 35,482 || 33,437 ||
 * Legislative proposal || — || 5 || 16 ||
 * Total, Mandatory outlays || 544,936 || 600,495 || 628,552 ||
 * Total, Outlays || 616,040 || 672,932 || 700,980 ||
 * Legislative proposal || — || 5 || 16 ||
 * Total, Mandatory outlays || 544,936 || 600,495 || 628,552 ||
 * Total, Outlays || 616,040 || 672,932 || 700,980 ||
 * Total, Outlays || 616,040 || 672,932 || 700,980 ||

http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/medicarehealthinsurance/i/nathealthins_2.htm http://www.essortment.com/all/nationalizedhea_rtqq.htm
 * __Nationalized Health Care__**

Nationalized Health Care Is Beneficial studies show that people with a house hold income below $25,000 have a greater chance of getting sick. They only have two options to get help. Either pay out of their own pocket or they can decide not to get help. A lawyer from New York shows that 40% of her bankruptcy cases have a medical bill in them. In 1995 31% of Americans didn't have or couldn't afford health care. the American health care industry is a very profitable industry and is run on competition. Changing the American system to the Canadian system would cost upwards of $100 billion annually and would rise every year.

National Health Care Arguments for -Reduce cost of American made consumer products -Employers don't have to supply health insurance -Help to compete in global market and keep more jobs in the U.S. -People can open there own business without the fear of loosing there health care Arguments against -Doesn't ensure equal access to health care system -Elderly people will have more trouble obtaining health care -Reduce quality of health care -Countries who have nationalized health care are now establishing free market alternatives to alleviate problems caused by national health care According to a survey 43% of Americans favor national health care and 50% would oppose the plan of nationalized health care.

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/erbe/2009/2/27/nationalized-healthcare-would-be-a-middle-class-disaster.html

Nationalized Health Care Would Be A MIddle Class Disaster The new health care plan calls for medicare cuts and tax hikes. Obama is asking congress to cover 48 million uninsured Americans. His plan to cover this is to save $634 billion over 10 years to cover these Americans. This still wouldn't be enough to cover everyone. The only reason Canada's system works is because 90% of Canadians live within 100 miles from American borders. They come to the U.S. when they need fast health care. Some of the waiting lists in Canada are over six months long.


 * __Medicare__**

Medicare, Medicaid and other conventional private health insurance no longer meets the needs of today's people, and is not up to standard. The government should start to back out of insurance and leave it up to companies specifically dealing and specializing in insurance. People should start to look at insurance through a consumer standpoint: being able to choose specific packages based on age, marital status, etc. Packages can also ad ons to their supplemental packages. Medicare and Medicaid are becoming obsolete and we are moving towards a newer system of a more modern personalized health care.

http://lohud.com/article/20090429/OPINION/904290316/1076/OPINION01

Medicare costs the government around $390 billion a year, far outweighing the cost of social security. Medicare's rate of growth is also twice the size of social security. It has been estimated that in the next ten years, Medicare spending will account for at lease 25% of federal income tax revenues. And it is also projected that by 2030, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security will consume 2/3 of every dollar collected in income taxes.

http://www.moneyshow.com/investing/blog.asp?aid=Blog-16669

Private Medicare Advantage plans are going to be paid an extra $11.9 billion compared to other beneficiaries would have cost in the traditional fee-for-service program says the Commonwealth Fund. Since MA was enacted in 2004, the Medicare Advantage Plan jumped $11.9 billion. MA costs are projected to be around 13% higher over fee-for-service for the 10 million Medicare beneficiaries. The $11.9 billion in extra payments shows a 34% increase over 2008. But since 2004, MA enrollment has jumped from 4.8 million beneficiaries to the 10 million they have today. Karen Davis, President of the Commonwealth Fund, hopes that in the year 2010 the MA payments can be modified despite the small toll on the beneficiaries. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that bringing Medicare Advantage payments in line with traditional fee-for-service Medicare would save $157 billion over the next 10 years.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-05/cf-ept043009.php

For the future, President Obama should look into either severely reducing the cost of the Medicare, and Medicaid health plans, or cut them all together to help our country to get out of debt faster. Seniors should receive the same type of healthcare as all other americans to help control government spending.