WASHINGTON – President-elect Barack Obama’s plan to extend healthcare to uninsured Americans will be beneficial to hospitals, medical centers and hospital equipment makers, according to Moody’s Investors Service.
“Moody’s estimates that the annual cost of the plan could be on the order of $100 billion to $200 billion, inclusive of participant contributions, on top of current annual government spending of about $800 billion,” the agency said.
The Democratic party’s healthcare agenda includes increasing research funding and providing $10 billion over five years to healthcare providers for adoption of healthcare information technology. The agency predicted that both for-profit and non-profit hospitals alike could benefit from Obama’s plan.