With reports confirming that one out of six Americans are covered by health insurance, Democrats in the White House are formulating a plan to reduce healthcare costs and expand the coverage to approximately 46 million uninsured Americans.

The question that is raised for many politicians is how this reform will be paid for, estimated to cost Americans over $1 trillion over the next ten years.  This plan has come under heavy opposition and scrutiny from Republicans and special interest groups.

“We do not see the sort of fundamental changes that would be necessary to reduce the trajectory of federal health spending by a significant amount,” said Douglas Elmendorf, director of the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, to the Senate Budget Committee. 

Due to Elmendorf’s comments, plans for one of the biggest healthcare reformations America has seen since the creation of Medicaid and Medicare in 1965, will be seriously hindered.

President Obama, who during his campaign often spoke of his plans to lower taxes, may have to reconsider that pledge in order to come up with ways to fund the healthcare reform. 

“I am going to keep pressing until we get this done,” said Obama in a Virginia town hall meeting earlier this month, referring to the healthcare plan. 


The two biggest issues regarding American healthcare is that too many people are uninsured and the ones that are covered are facing extremely high costs.

According to experts, it would cost between $100 billion and $200 billion to provide comprehensive coverage.  Obama has reportedly looked into repealing some of the tax cuts made by the Bush administration, but plans to make this an actually reality seems unlikely. 

For another option, albeit controversial, Congress has considered taxing those with high incomes who get their healthcare as a tax-free benefit from their employers. 

Healthcare, which now makes up close to 18 percent of the U.S. economy, costs more per person in comparison to other first world nations like France, England and Germany.
    The executive branch of U.S. government has made efforts to control the rising costs of healthcare. If not curtailed, it could seriously affect future government spending.

Timothy Geithner, U.S. Treasury Secretary noted that the only way to make the system financially stable was “to control runaway growth in both private healthcare expenditures.”

The Congressional Budget Office warns that if the rising costs of federal healthcare is not managed, it could bankrupt the U.S. in the next 50 years.