Victory for Obama is Victory for Smokers and Ex-Smokers

Smokers and former smokers have President-elect Barack Obama on their side when it comes to healthcare. Under Obama’s plan, we can look forward to healthcare insurance coverage regardless of any pre-existing conditions and we will pay less for medical insurance and healthcare.

If we are unfortunate enough to fall sick as a result of our smoking addiction, we will find that we pay less for medical care and prescriptions and are far less likely to go bankrupt as a result of treatment costs.

President-elect Obama promises the following on his website:

• Require insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions so all Americans regardless of their health status or history can get comprehensive benefits at fair and stable premiums
• Lower costs for businesses by covering a portion of the catastrophic health costs they pay in return for lower premiums for employees
• Lower drug costs by allowing the importation of safe medicines from other developed countries, increasing the use of generic drugs in public programs and taking on drug companies that block cheaper generic medicines from the market
• Require hospitals to collect and report health care cost and quality data
• Reduce the costs of catastrophic illnesses for employers and their employees
• Reform the insurance market to increase competition by taking on anticompetitive activity that drives up prices without improving quality of care
• Require coverage of preventive services, including cancer screenings

You can read the full plan at http://www.barackobama.com/issues/healthcare/

In addition to healthcare reform and tax breaks, we will soon have an environment-friendly energy policy, college tuition credits in exchange for community service, money toward our infrastructure and schools, investments in science and technology, a democracy without Guantanamo or torture, the end of a deadly war, a Supreme Court that will protect a woman’s right to choose, a president who pronounces "nuclear" correctly and who believes in dialog over bullets - this list is like the wish list of a crazy person, yet we have been granted victory.

I am grateful to this amazing democracy and that enough people saw the value in electing this unlikely candidate to our highest office. My daughter’s future feels much safer and hopeful because of it.

And my own future feels more secure knowing that if I do fall victim to illness due to my years as an addicted smoker, I will not find myself fighting for insurance coverage for the healthcare I need to get better.