Clinton to Propose Universal Health Care

[Herman Munster]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/16/us/politics/16clinton.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

WASHINGTON, Sept. 15 — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday will lay out a plan to secure health insurance for all Americans while severely limiting the ability of insurers to deny coverage or charge higher premiums to people with chronic illnesses and other medical problems, her aides and advisers say.

Mrs. Clinton’s purpose, they said, is not only to cover the 47 million people who are uninsured but to improve the quality of health care and make insurance more affordable for those who already have it.

The goal of Mrs. Clinton’s plan, to be outlined in a speech in Des Moines, is similar to that of the ill-fated plan that she and President Bill Clinton pushed in 1993 and 1994.

But advisers to Mrs. Clinton, a Democrat from New York, said Saturday that she would try to avoid the perception that she was advocating a bureaucratic, big-government solution. That perception, promoted by conservative Republicans and the insurance industry, sank the Clinton plan in 1994.

[illinoisprogressive]

1. About time. Everyone has had theirs out for a long time. but,

I won't be snarky. Good luck to her in her unveiling.

[calteacherguy]

2. I have never understood why it's important to some *when* a proposal is put out by a candidate

...especially since it's still months before the first primary.

[ElizabethDC]

6. My thoughts exactly

it's not a race to get the *first* health care plan (or any plan) out, it's about developing the best one possible. As long as it's done by the election, and people have some time to look at it, I don't know why a plan *has* to be out months and months in advance (although, obvioulsy it's fine if it is).

[AZBlue]

8. I'd rather see a well-thought out plan for any issue than a hurried rush to the press.

Especially when this one sounds like it will cover everyone, not just children! Finally!!!!

[SharonAnn]

18. She's proposing Insurance not Health Care. There's a difference. A big one.

[Hieronymus]

53. You bet she is. Vote Edwards.

[William769]

34. "I won't be snarky"

To late.

[Forkboy]

38. At least you and I don't pretend.

;)

[amandabeech]

3. She's afraid of the insurance companies.

That's not a good starting point.

They backed her down in '94, and she's still going to appease them?

[bluestateguy]

4. Well, well, well. I guess the insurance companies have finished drafting her plan

Forgive me if I don't trust the insurance industry to define "affordable" coverage.

[AZBlue]

9. "But she is prepared once again to do battle with insurance companies, which she has said...

...“spend tens of billions of dollars a year figuring out how not to cover people” and “how to cherry-pick the healthiest persons, and leave everyone else out in the cold.”

Aides to Mrs. Clinton said her proposal would elaborate several ideas that she has floated this year.

They said, for example, that Mrs. Clinton would amplify a comment in March when she declared, “We could require that every insurance company had to insure everybody, with no exclusion for pre-existing conditions.”

On another occasion, she vowed, “As president, I will end the practice of insurance company cherry-picking once and for all by allowing anyone who wants to join a plan to do so, and by prohibiting insurance companies from carving out benefits or charging higher rates to people with health problems.”

The article goes on to quote both Karen M. Ignagni, president of America’s Health Insurance Plans, and Mary Nell Lehnhard, senior vice president of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, in arguments against HRC's statements and plans.


Perhaps next time you should read the article before criticizing it???

[Clark2008]

24. With Edwards as your candidate, I wouldn't cast too many

stones on that note.

Edwards' plan doesn't cut out the insurance industry, either.

[regnaD kciN]

5. Cue Harry and Louise...!

Since when is "a plan to secure health insurance for all Americans" the same thing as "universal health care"...? (ANSWER: Maybe it is when you've become one of the biggest recipients of contributions from the insurance lobby.) Most everyone can already "secure health insurance" for themselves and their families -- as long as they can shell out a couple thousand a month.

I look forward to seeing the specifics of her plan, and whether it's more of a far-reaching attempt to provide universal health care than is indicated by the NYT article. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised but, if it merely means expanding our current medical insurance system, my immediate reaction is that "there's got to be a better way." :eyes:

[Hieronymus]

7. She has no intention of having single payer .. she's beholding to Big Pharma.

[AZBlue]

10. Are you psychic? Or do you have an advance copy of the plan?

If the answer isn't yes to one of the above questions, take your RW talking points elsewhere please.

[Hieronymus]

12. Single payer would be government .. you obviously didn't read the original

post. She wants to work with insurance companies. Nothing is more discouraging than people who vote without knowledge of the issues. :eyes:

[Telly Savalas]

23. What's that have to do with big pharma?

You're saying private insurers like having large pharmaceutical costs eat away at their profit margins? How does that work?

If you're going to trot out those obnoxious fucking rolling-eyes, at least make an effort to have a cogent point yourself.

[AZBlue]

39. She doesn't want to work with them - it would be a mandate.

"Nothing is more discouraging than people who vote without knowledge of the issues."

How true!

[redqueen]

63. What mandate?

What would be the mandate? No PROFITS on taxpayer-subsidized care? Yeah, I'll hold my breath waiting for that to happen.

[Dr.Phool]

11. From what I've seen today....

It's a combination of private and gov't subsidized insurance that everyone has to join.

To me, it sounds like Mitt Romney's Massachusetts plan.

Triangulation at it's finest. She just don't get it. Insurance companies are THE problem. Case in point. A good friend of mine flew out to Vegas last week. He slipped getting out of the shower at his hotel. The hotel gave him a $20 voucher to take a cab to the hospital, where he promptly had 20 staples installed in the back of his head.

He's back in Florida now, and needs follow-up treatment and a MRI on his head. United Healthcare refuses to pay for any of it (including the E.R. in Vegas) "because it was an accident". :wtf:

We need single-payer, HR 676. Not Romney-lite.

Get insurance companies out of healthcare.

[Nutmegger]

15. This Mitt Romney style health care is dangerous.

It gives the impression of "universal health care" when in fact, it's not.

That is a pretty sad story about your friend. Sad to say that there are many more, mine included, that happen every day in this country.

These damn insurance companies need to go.

[RaleighNCDUer]

35. The hope of the Democratic party models her plan on that of a

Republican governor?

Nah. Couldn't be.

[mustang]

13. Bravo

I am so glad that Hillary is going to tackle this huge issue. She understands the issue more than anyone, she has been dealing with the issue her whole life, in Arkansas and as a Senator. She has tried this before, so knows how to approach it in a different way. Sure, people on this board will slam her for the gall to "address universal health care" but she's already done it before. Now it's time to try again. Bob Dole was the one that said universal health coverage was dead on arrival and special interests groups spent $500 million dollars to defeat it. It takes a lot of guts to tackle this again. Go Hillary. I think she is the only one that can really make any progress on this mammoth monster.

[DURHAM D]

14. She gets it better than anyone.

Inside or outside of elective office.

Inside or outside of government.

If she can't make improvements as President it can't be done. It will be tough but she is the only one with a decent chance.

[Tellurian]

17. Absolutely...

The difference in Hillary's attempt this time is she is fully aware it's not only the health plan itself that has to be viable, it's getting the legislation through and passed by Congress. The timing is right. We are in a much better position this election cycle for picking up 8 to 10 more seats Democratic Congressional Seats reflecting an overwhelming Dem majority.

[IndianaGreen]

16. Hillary shares her bed with Big Pharma

She will do that old Clintonian trick of sounding like she is for the people, while she stabs them in the back.

[Tellurian]

19. Yeah, huge legislative roll backs are going to be a "pain" for Big Pharma..

and the Insurance industry. But what are they going to do about it when it happens? Go elsewhere?

[RaleighNCDUer]

37. What "legislative rollbacks"?

She will do nothing to make either the insurance or pharma industries uncomfortable. They will get their MASSIVE cut off the top, and we will get a broken system that will be worse than what we have today. Think NAFTA. The corporations will write the legislation, and the only result will be that they will be made richer by the requirement that everyone be covered - and being covered does not mean being protected, it means everyone will have to pay. We will wind up with a multi-tiered 'system' where the poorest are subsidized by the government - spurring the outrage of the 'small government' types; the lower-to-upper middle will have a sliding scale of government subsidence, covered by mandate on employers - pissing off the employers who will have less latitude for covering their share; upper class will be self-insured, raising issues of inherent fairness that some are covered by the government while the rich have to carry the burden on their own...

True universal healthcare, whether on the French or Canadian model, is the only answer, and whatever her plan is, it will NOT be that. The insurance and pharma industries would not be backing her if there was any hint of that being the case.

[Tellurian]

40. Sen Clinton has not released her Health Care plan..

If you have an advance copy of Sen Clinton's Health Care Plan, I would like to review it now against your allegations..

Please post it NOW!

[RaleighNCDUer]

58. Wish I could

but the insurance industry has not finished writing it for her yet.

[RaleighNCDUer]

61. Gee, am I a frickin psychic?

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/09/17/health.care/index.html

Every problem i laid out in my post is mentioned as an aspect of her 'plan'.

[Hieronymus]

54. You bet .. thanks...

The recent Harper's Index shows that 51% of Americans can get an appointment with a doctor the same day or the day after. In France, 57% can do that.

[Donna Zen]

55. That's exactly what this is

It is mandatory insurance through the crooked bloated insurance companies. And as if that isn't enough, the plan buys the silence of the insurance industry with millions of dollars every year to cover the uninsured. Tax dollars that is.

I like to think of it as the Halliburton model.

[harun]

57. Big Pharma not as bad as Big Health Insurance, at least big

Pharma creates drugs. Big Health Insurance just takes peoples money for care and sometimes pays for it. They add nothing to the process. They are looters.

H.R.676 is the plan to go with.

[avrdream]

20. Sometimes DU makes me crazy.

First off: wait until her plan is revealed.

Secondly: realize that the United States, historically, makes changes in small steps. I'm in the health care field and have seen up front the power of the insurance companies. I can't STAND the fact that they are running things but their power is so big that we cannot just go straight to universal health care. This sucks, but it is true. Hopefully, Hillary's plan will at least get everyone covered. Over the next ten years, I expect that we will move towards full coverage without insurance companies but, keep in mind, to do so will require a sacrifice. Australians have a great system for health care but they pay through their teeth via taxes. Take your pick, peeps.

In the meantime, please don't knock ANY of the Democratic candidates - at least they are discussing it and giving thought to improving it. When did you hear any of the Republican candidates putting out a plan?

[Greyhound]

56. Sure, what's another 150,000 - 250,000 needless deaths, as long as the insurance industry can suck

another couple trillion dollars out of the economy. After all, that's what's important.

Those dead people don't donate much, if anything, to her campaign.

[sendero]

21. There already IS ..

.... a big beaurocratic system, it's called Medicare and it is incredibly efficient, beating the insurance companies in overhead ten to freaking 1.


Stop letting the nutcake right spread their lying ideas.

[bread_and_roses]

22. She's still in bed with the insurance Companies, what a surprise

Health "insurance" is not health "care." I can't believe anyone defends this drivel in this day and age. Talk about your "willing suspension of disbelief." The American people are quite ready for universal health CARE, it is our bought and sold politicos, like Hillary, who are not - and who won't be until we have publicly funded elections, like other civilized nations.

[Rene]

25. Better start educating people NOW in the Medical fields. Can you imagine

how many more jobs there will be if everyone can have the medical care they need....the testing etc. I think once someone has a diagnosis of a very sever disease that is known to have extremely high medical costs --- they should go into a special government funded pool for Insurance. There should be much more work done on PREVENTATIVE care. More work done on NATURAL treatements/additives...
But I think a National system will fail if we don't have enough trained individuals; and medical facilities in the very near future.

If there's a treatment for any disease/accident....noone should be denied any level of treatment due to what they can AFFORD. Everyone should have equal access.

How about having the government pay private Insurance premiums for the companies that people choose.

[Terri S]

26. For someone who touts her 'experience' especially with regards to health care reform

it has sure taken her a long time to come up with her plan now. My take? It's politically smart. She will do as she tends to do, see what everyone else has done, see what is lacking, take the best of what's out there, fill in what she thinks has been missed and voila... she has her 'own' health care plan that is different from everone else's.

Then the media will fall all over themselves talking about what a leader she is.

[Totally Committed]

27. Any candidate can PROMISE or PROPOSE anything.....

Ask the GLBT Community who got the shaft from the last Clinton Administration who promised them the moon in exchange for their overwhelming support (which the Community gave them) only to get shafted completely by them after the election. What they got for their support, instead, was DOMA, Don't Ask / Don't Tell, reduced funding for AIDS research and treatment, and various other kicks to the gut.

The best we will possibly get from HRC (or ANYONE so closely affiliated and supported by Big Pharma, Big Med, and Big Insurance) no matter what she proposes or promises now, is maybe Universal HEALTH INSURANCE.

The Clintons broke faith before and will do it again. They can't be trusted. Neither can any other "corporate" candidate. Do you really think corporations pour money in those campaigns for OUR GOOD? Uh, no....... they don't what will be donr "for us" will be what's good for THEM. Take that to the bank.

TC

[BootinUp]

28. I don't have a clue

what the GLBT community thought about don't ask don't tell when it was taken up as one of the first items to act on in the Clinton Administration, but I am pretty damn sure that most Americans thought it was what they (GLBT) wanted at the time.

To your main point about any one can promise things. Sure thats true. Its a question of whether one has the power or skill to deliver on the promises. You know the Clinton Administration had a pretty good record of delivering on the promises they made. I think you might be surprised if you researched that.

[Totally Committed]

29. Why would any community want to have to hide their true selves

in any chosen profession in order to keep their position? The Army is a volunteer (at least as I write this) Army. Those who choose to go into it usually want it as a career. Would you want to have to hide your sexual orientation just to keep your job?

TC

[BootinUp]

31. I already said

I don't have a clue about what political positions they supported in 1992 in regards to military service, it seems strange to believe Clinton did it for no one, just to piss everyone off then?

[BootinUp]

30. delete

[Hieronymus]

52. Thanks .. you summed it up.

[GreenArrow]

32. If it involves the inusurance bloodsuckers

it's not going to work, except for them. They must go.

[Vinca]

33. " . . . . to make insurance more affordable"

That says it all. Another BS plan that involves the insurance companies. Why don't they get it?????????????? I'm so annoyed. Does Hillary think the health insurance companies are going to give up some of their profits for humanitarian reasons? Not bloody likely. If they're required to issue a plan it will exclude everything but an ingrown toenail and that'll be gone, too, if it requires surgery. Still voting for Kucinich here.

[WeCanWorkItOut]

36. Obesity management, Safeway style? Not a word of "anti-trust"

Hillary puts a lot of emphasis on the doing something about the obesity epidemic. Well and good. One problem: for some people, the Insulin Sensitive types, obesity is perhaps less damaging that for others. Is this an issue we should talk about?

Also, apparently Hillary admires the Safeway approach to managing obesity. Just what is that approach, though? Higher premium costs for the obese? Access to a gym? Demerits if you don't go? Anything else?

I believe it would have been useful if she'd mentioned the word anti-trust. Of course that would have required more courage, and maybe wiser advice, than I suppose we can expect from a politician in an election season.

(Sorry, Vinca. I wasn't quibbling with your comments. This was meant to be a response to the original message. I'm still kind of new here.)

[FormerDittoHead]

45. It's easy - create a new, federally sanctioned, "lower tier" level of medical services...

...and round it out with legal protections to the insurance companies from law suits because of denial of services...

It's a win-win!

Hillary wins, and so the Insurance companies, and while insurance rates for people who can BARELY afford it will continue to rise at a 15% per year rate, those making SLIGHTLY lower amounts will be able to afford the insurance which covers you only for treatment at Walmart...

Oh, and there will be new, affordable plans for those wanting Medicare supplemental when THAT gets the rug pulled out from under it...

Any plan which doesn't virtually put medical insurance companies out of business isn't the plan I want either...

[renie408]

46. In reality, how much weight does a Presidential plan carry?

Who implements whatever the plan is? Wouldn't it be more to the point to have a Congressional Plan? And if the President comes up with a plan that Congress won't back, what good is it?

[NancyG]

41. Please, please, may it help the greying self-employed....

$1075/mo for 2 with a high deductible is getting impossible. At 20% increase per year, 2008 will be worse than impossible.

Please, please, Hillary, get something that spreads the risk passed and signed soon.

[LWolf]

42. Inadequate, and doesn't compete with HR 676. n/t

[saltpoint]

43. It won't hurt one bit to have this issue constantly on the front burner of

public debate until vast and meaningful reforms are finally implemented.

U.S. Health system generally is a tortured mess.

Good for Senator Clinton on this, and good for our candidates who keep reviving the issue in the face of Republican obstinance and stupidity.

[renie408]

44. How do we get rid of the insurance industry?

How do you get the insurance industry out of the health industry?

Whatever it is, I'm in.

[Snarkturian Clone]

47. how about

Universal War Ending?

[antigop]

48. Oh, lovely, just lovely. "her plan would preserve a large role for private insurance companies"

Of course it will!

What else would you expect from a corporatist?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

49. The "socially acceptable" candidates anointed by the MSM

with their high incomes and government health coverage don't have a clue what it's like to have an insurance company blather about preventive medicine when one's own premiums and deductible are so high that one can't afford to have a check up for fear the doctor will order tests.

[Sparkly]

50. I'm still waiting to hear what the rationale is for keeping for-profit insurance companies involved.

Why NOT Kucinich's proposal? Why do the other candidates reject the idea? (Or, okay -- why do they SAY they reject the idea? What's the argument against it?)

[maxanne]

51. let us be clear

on our terms. "Universal health care" used to mean "single payer." The term has been co-opted in this election season, by all of the candidates who are in bed with insurance companies.

The only candidate who has a single payer system that would cover every American is Dennis Kucinich.

The others have plans that are variations on the employer based private insurance system. Sound familiar? It should. It's the system we already have that isn't working.

Move along, folks. Nothing to see here - just a facelift for the broken system. If the "free market" were truly the answer - we wouldn't have a problem to begin with, now would we?

[marlakay]

59. Not true universal health care

she still wants to use the insurance companies and have employers pick up alot of the tab. Our country needs non profit care paid for with our taxes. Then employers can afford to give raises or maybe just stay in our country or in business!

[Forrest Greene]

60. As I Recall, She Was In Charge Of This Effort Some Years Ago

...& blew it, badly.

[redqueen]

62. Is anyone SERIOUSLY expecting anything groundbreaking?

:rofl: