OBAMARAMA

Bloomberg News reports today on the details of Sen. Obama’s universal health care plan, which he is set to unveil this afternoon in a speech at the University of Iowa.

He’s received his fair share of flack for lacking a comprehensive proposal on the issue — despite the fact that until last week the only candidate in either party to lay out a health care plan was John Edwards — but all that nonsense stops now. The details are on the table.

Here’s how Bloomberg reports them:

Obama, 45, an Illinois senator, would increase preventive screening, institute an electronic health records system, allow Medicare to bulk-buy prescription drugs, and provide reinsurance for catastrophic coverage — steps Obama said could save as much as $100 billion a year in health-care costs.

For those who still couldn’t afford coverage, Obama would offer subsidized health insurance, expand government Medicaid and children’s plans and overhaul the insurance market, according to excerpts of a speech he’s expected to give today at the University of Iowa in Iowa City.

“To help pay for this, we will ask all but the smallest businesses who don’t make a meaningful contribution today to the health coverage of their employees to do so by supporting this new plan,” Obama will tell supporters. “And we will allow the temporary Bush tax cut for the wealthiest Americans to expire.”

…In order to cut costs, Obama would spend $10 billion over five years to move health records from a paper system to an electronic one… Obama also supports efforts in Congress to allow Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices directly — a move some Democrats say could save as much as $30 billion annually.

…Obama also plans to increase competition among health insurance providers while creating a so-called National Health Insurance Exchange to act as an industry watchdog to help keep costs down. These strategies would reduce premiums for every U.S. household by $2,500, according to the text of his speech.

“In the end, coverage without cost containment will only shift our burdens, not relieve them,” Obama is expected to say. “So we will take steps to remove the waste and inefficiency from the system so we can bring down costs and improve the quality of our care.”

…Obama would also allow children to remain on their parents’ health insurance until the age of 25, and offer individuals who can’t afford private insurance access to a government plan that would be based on the federal employee system. He didn’t elaborate on how people would qualify for such a plan.

“It’s time to bring together businesses, the medical community, and members of both parties around a comprehensive solution to this crisis,” Obama will say. “It’s time to let the drug and insurance industries know that while they’ll get a seat at the table, they don’t get to buy every chair.”

Promises to be an important and exciting speech. We’ll add video when it becomes available.

You can click here to read all “Here’s the Beef” posts, which highlight Sen. Obama’s substantive policy proposals.

UPDATE: As promised:

“Obama proposes college loan plan,” declares the headline of Ohio University’s newspaper following a conversation about financial aid with Sen. Obama. The article backs it up:

Obama confronted the problem by announcing a proposal today to eliminate private student lenders from the loan process.

“By removing private lenders from the process and requiring that all federal student loans be provided by the federal government, we’ll save billions that we can use to make college more affordable,” he said.

Obama said his plan would have saved taxpayers nationwide roughly $6 billion this year alone.

…“We shouldn’t provide billions of taxpayer-funded giveaways to private banks when young people all across the country are trying to figure out how they can finance an affordable, accessible college education,” Obama said.

…At least 200,000 students were qualified to go to college but didn’t because of financial limitations, Obama said, citing tuition increases over the past five years of 11 percent at private universities and 35 percent at public institutions.

As someone on the verge of returning to school, this particular issue resonates with me. The subsidized federal student loans are a huge help to students, since the clock doesn’t start ticking (and hence interest doesn’t start accruing) until six months after you graduate. That gives you a chance to get your feet under you before your debt starts growing in leaps and bounds.

The often predatory practices of many private lenders mean students are immediately in the hole, accruing interest on their debt years before they’re in a position to begin paying it off.

Sen. Obama is making sense on this issue — which may well be an important part of his popularity among young people. As the article notes, “Obama said he noticed the college-aged generation taking a deeper interest in political issues and attributed it to issues such as college loans, climate change, federal debt and globalization.”

Most presidential candidates would rather eat their own shoe than confront an interest group with an uncomfortable truth. Not so for Sen. Obama.

From the New York Times:

Senator Barack Obama of Illinois delivered a stern message to Detroit auto companies on Monday, saying they had done little to lessen the nation’s dependence on foreign oil and needed to improve the fuel efficiency of their vehicles.

Sounding at times like a teacher scolding a lazy but promising student, Mr. Obama at the same time proposed incentives to help General Motors, Ford and Chrysler out of a lingering slump that has resulted in dozens of plant closings and the elimination of tens of thousands of jobs this decade.

…Mr. Obama, making his first campaign visit to Michigan, said he wanted to be blunt with Detroit auto companies on their home turf.

…“I’m making this proposal here today because I don’t believe in making proposals in California and giving a different speech in Michigan,” he said. His goal “is not to destroy the industry, but to help bring it into the 21st century,” he said.

The article notes that Sen. Obama’s plan would mandate “a 4 percent a year increase in fuel economy standards beginning in 2009, or the equivalent of about one mile per gallon per year.” The result would be conservation of 2.5 million barrels daily. Sen. Obama also plans to assist automakers in updating their plants and “in dealing with their burden of paying for current and retired workers’ health care expenses.”

He also plans to “Expand the tax breaks for buying hybrids and ultra-efficient vehicles that use biofuels,” according to a Chicago Sun-Times report.

Perhaps most telling in the Times article, though, are the remarks of folks who attended the speech, and who were impressed by Sen. Obama’s substance and the details of his plan:

“I think it took a lot of courage to come to Detroit and lay it on the line,” said Peter Eckstein, a retired labor union economist from Ann Arbor, Mich.

Leonard Mungo, a Detroit lawyer, said he was surprised to hear specific proposals for addressing the industry’s problems. “He’s saying, ‘You got yourselves into this mess, but now this is how we get out,’” Mr. Mungo said.

Over the past five months, we’ve documented the wide array of attacks that have been launched against Sen. Obama by his opponents in politics and the media. For the most part, these baseless caricatures have been debunked and have largely fallen by the wayside (”He’s a junkie,” “he’s a Marxist leftist,” “he’s too black,” “he’s not black enough,” “he’s a hypocrite,” “he’s a Muslim“…just to name a few).

Up until now, though, the attack that has arguably stung Sen. Obama’s supporters the most is the suggestion that he is “all style, no substance.” We’ve known that it’s not true, but given the nature of the campaign, its quick and early start, and Sen. Obama’s need as a relative newcomer to build momentum and enthusiasm, we haven’t had as many tools as we’d like to rebut it.

That’s about to change.

Earlier this week, Sen. Obama addressed the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, where he discussed his foreign policy vision. It was a 40-minute speech that was reported in the New York Times under the headline, “Obama Outlines His Foreign Policy Views,” and was very well received by pundits and experts alike.

Lest there be any question about the substantial nature of the speech, here is a video of Sen. Obama’s remarks in their entirety:

As Sen. Obama builds on his momentum and grassroots support by laying out the specifics of his candidacy, I suspect we’ll be seeing a lot more speeches like this one. And as we do, OBAMARAMA will lay them out here in a new segment called “Here’s the Beef.”

Frankly, it’s just nice to know that the biggest knock against Sen. Obama is based on a total underestimation of his ability to back up charisma with meaty policy proposals. Those of us who have been following him know that won’t be any problem — and appreciate having such a low bar to step over.