Hillarycare (I owe a good story to a supporter who was classy this week)

[illinoisprogressive]

September 14, 2007
Read More: Hillary Clinton

'Hillarycare' revisited

Heading into Monday's healthcare bonanza -- Hillary's rollout, along with an SEIU forum in D.C. -- the American Prospect has a piece by Paul Starr, who advised the Clinton White House on its health care plan.

The piece basically argues that the standard view of the Clinton healthcare debacle is wrong in two central ways. First, it wasn't Hillary's idea, and she wasn't driving the train. Second, she didn't blow it.

There's no clear political implication to that -- she's recently embraced ownership of it, if not blame for its failure, so it kind of cuts both ways.

But it's worth a read:

Now that Hillary Clinton is a candidate for president, the health-reform debacle is again receiving attention, this time as a basis for judging what kind of a president she might be in her own right. The trouble with such judgments, however, is that they are usually rooted in a series of misunderstandings about the Clinton health plan, Hillary's role in the reform effort, and the reasons for its failure. The mythology of "Hillarycare," as the Republicans like to call it, is only partly the result of right-wing misrepresentations of the plan as a "government takeover" and malicious personal attacks on Hillary. The press never got the story right in the first place, and recent biographies and articles about Sen. Clinton have added to the misconceptions.


http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/

[papau]

1. Interesting - I was wondering how long it'd take fore someone else that was there to verify what I

recall of the insurance industry versus Clinton battle of 93-94 over health care.


"First, it wasn't Hillary's idea, and she wasn't driving the train. Second, she didn't blow it."

True also in my memory - since we lobbied Bill in 92 and 93 to stop Hillary's single payer - which we thought we had done even before the election - and we were sure that we had stopped Hillary from the reports we got of the weeks they spent drawing up the "task force" idea. After that it was friends of Bill (led by Ira Magaziner) running things with Hillary more Chairmen of the group than driver of the mandated HMO ("managed competition within a budget" meaning competing private health plans, operating under a cap on total spending, which forces a limitation on what is and is not coverred and at what percentage of cost/co-pay) idea that they came up with. It was not her idea, but she was responsible for selling it - and she was beaten in the selling of the plan by the insurance industry and the GOP ("I've taken on GOP and have the scars to prove it").

I agree with one comment posted to the column - even though that commentor does not seem to understand the role in Hillary Care of private hospitals for the rich and private insurance outside the plan. The commentator says "(The government expenditures should be used for basic healthcare at affordable prices for all) via Medicare and equal funding per beneficiary with equal for Medicare managed care. People should be able to top off government funded care on their own, but without tax subsidy (spending taxable income). And health care should be completely separated from place of work or state or residence."