Health care: Change for the future

On Jan. 20, Barack Obama will become the 44th President of the United States. As his campaign has been saying for the past two years, change is in store. What kind of change is yet to be determined.

Health care is expected to change under President-elect Obama’s administration. His plan includes mandating health insurance for children. The plan also allows people below the age of 25 to be covered under their parents’ health insurance, a luxury which certain insurance companies grant only to full-time students.

For 24-year-old part-time VCU graduate student Thomas Cunningham, paying the cost of health insurance on his own is out of the question.

“I’ve been without health insurance for about five years now,” Cunningham said. “The health insurance that VCU offers is like, $2,000, and I can’t afford that on top of grad school.”

VCU Student Health assistant director of administration Barbara Jackson-Ingram said the Obama plan could improve the lives of people with health insurance.

Jackson-Ingram said medical costs have forced some students to sacrifice other expenditures or even withdraw from school in order to pay their medical bills.

“Right now, there are some students who have had some really catastrophic events occur and they’ve had to leave school,” Jackson-Ingram said. “That’s a really unfortunate thing.”

The VCU student health fee does not include coverage for services such as eye care, dental care, emergency room visits and referrals to specialists. Students without health insurance that need these services have to pay out of pocket. Currently about 700 students are enrolled in the VCU-sponsored health insurance.

Cunningham has problems with his vision and is unable to see an eye doctor to get the necessary prescription glasses. He purchases glasses over-the-counter at local pharmacies.

Business major James Johnson says Obama’s intentions are in the right place, but he doesn’t think Obama’s plan is practical.

“He’s going to make us pay more money,” Johnson said. “He is going to put stress on those who are already in a financial crisis.”

According to Obama’s Web site, the plan will lower health care costs by $2,500 for families.

“Large employers that do not offer coverage or make a meaningful contribution to the cost of quality health coverage for their employees to contribute a percentage of payrolls toward the costs of their employees’ health care,” the Web site states.

Small businesses would be exempt from this required employer contribution. The plan also includes a new small-business health tax credit to help small businesses provide affordable health insurance to their employees.

According to the Tax Policy Center, the plan will cost an estimated $1.6 trillion over 10 years, still leaving more than 25 million Americans uninsured.

“Eventually we’re going to be in a lot better shape than we are today,” Jackson-Ingram said.