Joe Biden

Joe Biden is the senior Senator from Delaware. Biden has been a U.S. Senator since 1972, the sixth-longest serving Senator in Congress. He is currently serving his sixth term. Joe Biden was born November 20, 1942.

Senator Biden's health care proposal is laid out in four main steps - providing coverage for all children, giving adults better access to care, offering federal reinsurance for catastrophic medical costs, and emphasizing preventive care.

The first priority of Senator Biden's plan is to insure all children. To do so, he will expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to cover all children in families earning less than 300% of the federal poverty level. The Delaware senator will allow children to keep SCHIP coverage until the age of 21.

Biden's plan will also provide adults with better access to health insurance. Uninsured Americans would be allowed to purchase insurance from the same type of program that provides coverage for members of Congress. Any adults between 55 and 64 years old would be able to buy into Medicare coverage.

Senator Biden will also create a federal reinsurance pool to give insurance companies a financial backstop for catastrophic medical costs. The pool will pay for 75% of medical costs over $50,000 if insurance companies agree to accept all applicants regardless of pre-existing conditions.

Biden also predicts insurance rates will go down because of the federal reinsurance pool.

Finally, Biden's plan will focus on preventive care and the modernization of health care information technology. All insurance companies would be required to cover all preventive care, and increase funding for preventive care programs. Biden would also invest at least $1 billion in implementing electronic health records.

Biden stops short of requiring all Americans to buy health insurance.

"I don't think you're going to need to mandate. When affordable health care is available, people will buy it," said Senator Biden.

To finance his plan, Senator Biden would roll back many of President Bush's tax cuts, including the cut for the richest 1 percent of Americans.

Sources

BusinessWeek: Biden unveils health care plan
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8SEVU7O0.htm

News Journal: Biden Unveils Health Care Plan
http://www.healthdecisions.org/News/default.aspx?doc_id=139334

Joe Biden for President: Health Care
http://www.joebiden.com/issues/?id=0003

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