President Barack Obama
During his time in office, Obama has made health care reform a key issue. Obama has dedicated much of his presidency to providing insurance coverage to minorities who cannot afford insurance and attempting to cut costs for senior citizens. He has successfully reduced the prices seniors pay for prescriptions and has pushed making preventative care - such as visiting primary doctors - more affordable so that more people can take advantage of it. Obama opposes a voucher system, which he says will put seniors at the mercy of insurance companies.
Obama's controversial Obamacare package includes a board of experts, which will identify the best practices and ideally keep costs down. His intention is it will prevent insurance companies from "jerk[ing] you around." One of his major goals is to include everyone who wants insurance in a national insurance pool. He also wants to ban insurance companies from discriminating against the sick.
Although in recent weeks Romney has closed the overall poll gap on Obama, Obama still leads the polls by eight points on health care and nine points on Medicare.
Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney
Romney disagrees with Obamacare. Romney believes Obamacare is too expensive and that it has killed jobs. If elected, Romney will issue an executive order to give all 50 states Obamacare waivers and then work to repeal the full legislation.
Romney wants to return health care to the states, as stipulated by the 10th amendment. He wants the states to be in charge of coming up with health care solutions that work best for the citizens of their state. The federal government will help by creating a level playing field for fair competition.
Romney wants to empower the people to make their own choices about buying individual healthcare and allow individuals to buy insurance across state lines.
Romney also wants to promote a free market. He believes it will increase competition, which will in turn increase efficiency and effectiveness, and it will offer consumers a higher quality product at a lower cost. Part of this plan will be preventing discrimination against individuals with pre-existing conditions with continuous coverage.
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Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
