Hillary Learned the Wrong Lesson from 1994 Health Care Fiasco

[marmar]

by Rose Ann DeMoro at HuffPost:
Hillary Learned the Wrong Lesson from 1994 Health Care Fiasco
Posted September 18, 2007 | 04:46 PM (EST)



The pundits might have it right on this one. Hillary Clinton did learn a lesson from her 1994 fiasco on healthcare reform. Unfortunately for most of us who don't have an Inc. after our name or a private jet to cart us around, it was the wrong lesson.

In the days leading up to the announcement of her latest, much anticipated health plan, Sen. Clinton threw around the word "consensus" a lot. In this case, the consensus she was seeking was with the same industry that so savaged her prior experience with healthcare.

This time, she apparently wants to soften them up in advance with a proposal that will generate hundreds of millions of dollars in additional profits for the insurance giants. It's probably not a coincidence that she is also the top recipient of healthcare sector contributions to her presidential campaign.

Looking past the bells and whistles -- which do at least include some good sound bites on retiree health and giving regular Americans the same health plan options as members of Congress -- the Clinton plan seems to rest on three shaky legs:

1. Forcing all Americans, who do not have current coverage and do not qualify for public assistance, to buy and maintain insurance;

2. Mandating large employers to either provide health benefits or contribute to the cost of coverage

3. Tax credits for just about everyone

If the central elements here sound familiar, they should. The plan is a smorgasbord of the worst elements of what we've seen and heard from some other presidential candidates and the plans floating around several state Capitols. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rose-ann-demoro/hillary-learned-the-wrong_b_64905.html

[Demeter]

1. Hillary Could Give Rube Goldberg a Run for His Money

Her "health coverage" plan would collapse within a year.

[regnaD kciN]

2. It also relies on avoiding key specifics...

...the biggest of which is: if "HRCare" promises to cap our insurance costs at a specific percentage of income, just what is that percentage going to be? 5%? 10%? 25%??? As it stands right now, the average non-company-provided insurance premium for a family with children is $1,000 a month, or somewhere above the higher of those percentages given above. As long as that percentage is kept a mystery until after the election, I think I can be forgiven for guessing that it will be high enough that, were it made known at the plan's introduction, HRCare would be dead in the water.

Millions of Americans are now just barely getting by, in serious debt, or both. If they lose their job-with-benefits, and can only find a replacement job without benefits (yes, I know HRCare says that employers have to provide insurance or face unspecified penalties...but does anyone seriously expect that it will cost employers as much to pay that penalty as opposed to paying in full for insurance for every employee, no matter how low-level?), what do you think is going to happen when the government essentially tells them "you may just be getting by on what you're earning, without a penny to spare, but, since you aren't getting insurance from your new employer, you are now required to pay 25% of your income on a private health insurance policy"...? You think the housing crisis is going to bring about a massive wave of bankruptcies? You ain't seen nuthin' yet!

[yurbud]

3. any price controls or regulation of the corporate leeches?

[toughboy]

4. This is not huffandpoop.com

I avoid huffingtonpost.com because they post the type of sensationalist nonsense seen in many supermarket tabloids along with purported unbiased news and essays. I mean everyone has to have the latest news about Britney or Angelina Jolie, for sure. It's worse than the mind numbing drivel that comes out of the mouth of Anderson Cooper, who tonight joked that if someone was repeatedly saying, "Hey, don't taser me dude" to the cops at the Kerry event in Orlando that he might consider tasering the guy. There is no reason to post anything from Huffandpoop.com here, even for the gratuitous Hillary bashing. Huffandpoop.com is part of the problem,babe.

[Demit]

6. Enjoy your stay.

[illinoisprogressive]

5. she's got to keep her biggest lobbyists buddies happy.