Democrats now have the majority in Congress and the White House. This is a first in quite a few years. Democratic lawmakers are known for being fighters for universal health care and letting the government have more interaction in insurance ideas.

With all this power, will the Democrats be able to change the health care system? We are going to analyze and list 5 main issues that will need attention in the next years, by the President and Congress. Let’s rank them from the least likely to be changed to most likely.

Whoever is in office, it would still be highly unlikely to expect a one payer universal health care system to be the norm. Obama himself has said that he sees that as unrealistic, though, he would like such a change. We can guarantee that this change will not take place withing the next 20 years for sure, and we doubt if it ever would happen.

Business mandates to provide health coverage or to assist workers in paying for it was a large chunk of Obama’s reform plan. This would include all businesses, except small businesses, to be required to provide coverage or at least help pay for their own plans. You can probably expect this piece of his plan to be nixed by business groups and possibly a candidate for a U.S. Senate filibuster by the Republicans/

Another chunk of Obama’s plan was permitting all Americans to to buy into the group health plan that is presently only available to federal employees. At first thought this seems like a good idea, on one hand it would mean more people in a plan, so negotiations with insurance companies for lower rates would be an option. On the other hand, it is a mystery as to what this would cost the government and how much it would cost taxpayers to fund.

The expansion of SCHIP has been a political battle since the Democrats took a majority in Congress two years ago. Twice they passed a sweeping expansion of coverage for more children, and twice it was vetoed by Republican President George W. Bush. But with the Democrats still in control and a president who himself voted for the expansion, look for this one to get passed under an Obama administration.

Changing medical records from paper to computers will lower the medical error numbers and improve the care quality. It will also lower administrative costs. We will be shocked if this way of medical recording doesn’t happen soon.

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