As far as enhancements regarding the medical services across the nation are concerned, the Obama era has a lot of promises to make. It appears that one of the "big plans" of the Obama administration will be to revamp the nation’s health care system.

“Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions, who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans,” President Obama said during his inaugural address.

And it seems he didn’t speak in vain, as experts on Thursday during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing, discussed a number of state programs intended to help residents quit smoking, lose weight and improve their health.

During the hearing, part of an ongoing series held by the committee to discuss efforts to improve the U.S. health care system, L. Allen Dobson, chair of North Carolina Community Care Networks, said that the state Community Care program, which provides Medicaid and SCHIP beneficiaries and other low-income residents with important parts of a medical home and community-based care management, has improved care for asthma, reduced hospitalizations by 35% and resulted in savings of more than $100 million annually since 2003.

Community Care of North Carolina is an innovative program that shows it is possible to improve health care and save money without reforming the entire system, writes Dr. Pauline Chen in her New York Times blog. The program has saved an estimated $3.5 million dollars over three years in asthma care and another $2.1 million in diabetes care.