What Obama's Budget Proposal Means to You

HEALTH CARE

The Obama budget sets aside a $634 billion down payment to transform the nation’s health care system. He leaves details of the reforms to Congress and future negotiations. But he would finance it in part by imposing higher taxes on richer Americans; by forcing the private Medicare Advantage insurance companies to compete for contracts; by charging a higher premium for high-income participants in the Medicare drug program; and by reducing Medicaid rebates to drugmakers. The plan also provides an added $340 million as incentives for doctors, nurses and dentists working in underserved regions of the country.

CANCER RESEARCH

Obama would raise funding levels for the National Institutes of Health for cancer research, adding $6 billion as part of a plan to double cancer research. The money will go toward developing diagnostics and treatments.

SOCIAL SECURITY

Obama would increase Social Security funding by 10 percent—up $1.1 billion to $11.6 billion—to expedite approval of benefits, particularly for people with disabilities. Social Security officials wade through 4.2 million applications for benefits each year from retirees, survivors and Medicare patients and another 2.6 million disability claims. There is currently a more than two-year backlog for disability claims.

VETERANS HEALTH CARE

The Veterans Affairs Department would get a $25 billion increase over the next five years and much of it would go toward health care. The extra money would allow another 5.5 million veterans to get care. Non-disabled veterans with modest incomes, for instance, will be allowed into the VA health care system for the first time in more than six years.

NUTRITION

Obama would set up a pilot program to help get more poor older Americans involved in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The budget says older Americans are among the “most vulnerable and hardest-to-reach” people who are eligible for the aid. Obama also would increase funding for food banks and other feeding programs that help the poor, including the SNAP program.

FOOD SAFETY

The blueprint increases the Food and Drug Administration budget by $1 billion to protect the nation’s food supply.

WORKPLACE CHANGES

The Obama budget proposes employers who do not provide retirement benefits be required to automatically enroll employees in a “direct-deposit” IRA account. This would increase the participation rate from 15 to 80 percent for low- and middle-income workers, the budget document claimed. 

MASS TRANSIT

Public transit would get a boost, including a $5 billion installment on Obama’s campaign promise to build a national network of high-speed passenger trains. Those funds, to spread out over five years, are on top of the $8 billion for high-speed trains in the recently enacted economic stimulus bill.

Tamara Lytle was a correspondent and Washington bureau chief for theOrlando Sentinelfrom 1997 to 2008.