I oppose Hillarycare health care

[bluestateguy]

It was a bad idea in 1994, and it's an even worse idea now. Should she become president, will this be the kind of health care plan she introduces? She could not push it through a Democratic controlled Congress, and her health care task force--made up of Ivy League technocrats--could not succinctly explain it to the American people. I remember when Michael Dukakis came to my university to give a talk. He said he was so baffled by the complexity of the Clinton health care plan that he could not explain it to his graduate students in public policy.The Clintons plan maintained private insurance as the primary mechanism of coverage for most Americans, through an employer mandate, the costs of which would hurt small business, to the benefit of large corporations. Under Hillarycare, the insurance companies and HMO's would have found creative new ways to manipulate the system to their benefit once again, at the expense of customers. They have good lawyers, accountants and MBA's who know how to do this stuff for a living.

I oppose Hillarycare from the Left. I favor a single payer, Canadian style health care system that would make private insurance obsolete (though if the companies want to continue to provide an obsolete product, I certainly won't stop them). Just delete the section of Medicare that says you have to be 65 to be a beneficiary, phase in an increase over several years of the Medicare payroll tax, lift the $90,000 income limit on payroll taxes, allow everyone to pay into Medicare part B, import drugs from Canada, put price controls on drugs, but provide government grants to pharmaceutical companies to do research of new drugs. Oh, and as part of any health care reform, the government should forgive all student loan debt accrued by medical students
(or compensate private lenders who made the loans).

[radio4progressives]

1. California Conservatives Arguing for Medicaid for All Californians

Conservatives in California have conducted studies that show that it would actually save the state billions of dollars in state revenues if all California Residents were on State Medicare system - which is essentially the principles single payer is based on as i understand it.

Proposals were being drafted before the Special Iniative Elections 2 months ago...don't know the status on that..

Just wanted to throw this surprising bit of info out there for consideration... especially it's being supported by Conservatives.

edit to add that as the old adage goes, 'So Goes California, So goes the rest of the nation'

(something like that ;) )

[radwriter0555]

2. When did Clinton announce she was running for President? Republicans are

the only ones trying to force her to run for president, since they "ain't got no candidate of their own..."

The health care cos will never allow an overhaul of the US health care system until a real Democrat like Senator Boxer takes charge.

[Erika]

3. Why the speculation?

I'm not not a Hillary fan at all. But downing her for a Clinton (Bill) plan is a bit much.

The average U.S. citizen is seeing that there is no decent health care except for the rich. They are seeing it loud and clear. W might suggest the poor buy a bicycle to improve their health and he will offer a tax credit to the retailers. Then W, in his compassion will offer more tax credits to the energy companies, because of the loss of revenue caused by health nuts.

[Dr.Phool]

4. John Conyers has a bill right now, H.R. 676

Which does just that. It expands the existing Medicare system to every American, regardless of age, income, or employment status. It will be paid for by a 3.5% tax (above the Medicare tax) on employers.

This is a bill that corporations as well as workers can get behind. The savings for everyone will be enormous. The bill also makes it unlawful for insurance companies to offer coverage that is covered under medicare, which includes everything but some elective procedures.

I believe Ted Kennedy has a companion bill in the Senate, called "Medicare for all".

But, I'll be damned if I can find any mention of it in the corporate media.

[radio4progressives]

5. Exactly the problem...

Sometimes it seems to me that citizens need to "storm the castles" of the media - to either take over the microphones - pound it into their freaking thick dumb fuck skulls that job is not to entertain, stop worrying about what their vanity and do a bit of homework and get this out to the public.

but we've that problem with AAR a lot of the times.

arrgghh...

[awoke_in_2003]

6. To quote:

"It will be paid for by a 3.5% tax (above the Medicare tax) on employers"

That is exactly why it will fail. Big business lobbyists would never allow an additional tax on "Poor, beleagured corporations". Hell, if that happened, the CEO might have to take a pay cut.

[Hope springs eternal]

11. Think of the savings in not having to pay for insurance

Maybe this does have a chance?

[loyalsister]

7. Who are the real wimps?

I constantly see phrases such as "big business lobbyists would never allow"
or "corporations would never allow"
What the hell? They will have that kind of power if we assume it is true and continue to work under that assumption.
OTOH, if we were to take another look at our actual government structure and how it is supposed to operate, then we would see that small donations and the real power is supposed to be ours.
I suggest forming citizen interest groups and taking this on at a state level. Most people have easier access to their state officials\capitols and it moves pretty fast in some cases. You can be there in person to affect the process. The more states that take this on, the more of an impetus there will be to do it nationally in 2008.
You've got to work with both parties, though. You've got to get in there and be civil with them if you're going to make it work.

[ClintonTyree]

8. Sounds a lot like bush's "prescription drug plan".........

I don't know of ANYONE who can understand that piece of........ legislation. Oh, wait a minute, there IS one group that understands it perfectly. The Pharmaceutical industry. They know that it's a windfall for them and that's all they need to know.

Certainly, something must be done about health-care in our country. Maybe Hill's first attempt was a little wacky but people learn from their mistakes. Except george bush, that is. He learns nothing from his constant barrage of fuck-ups.

[Sgent]

9. I have problems with the Canadian system

although I do support something similar to the British NHS with optional private insurance.

I support providing every person a minimum level of healthcare; however, I don't have a problem with allowing private contracts to exist between patients and health providers for accellerated services, nicer accomodations, etc.

Any system adopted is likely to be politically difficult due to requried rationing of care. It will most likely look like a combination of the VA system or your favorite HMO in operation. Note -- I think our current system is untenable, but am not yet prepared to make it illegal for health care providers and patients to contract outside of a single payer government system.

[Missy M]

10. Putting a price control on drugs is a good idea but what about...

the actual medical care. Medicare only pays a portion of what is billed by doctors and hospitals. If you have a catastrophic illness you need supplemental insurance to pick up the rest of the costs. How will this be handled. I know from first hand experience. A family member on Medicare has had $500,000.00 in medical costs the last 10 months and without supplemental insurance we would be in debt big time. We still had to pay because of the deductibles on both. How will this be handled?

[Toots]

12. Except hers has a chance of coming into being yours does not

While I agree with you in that Health Care should be totally single payer with government establishing hospitals and providing care just as they do in the military I think the people will not buy it just yet. They have been brainwashed into believing taking care of your citizens is socialism and to them socialism is a very bad word. Hillary's plan as I understood it would establish a single low payment plan for all companies no matter how large or how small. Like right now IBM pays much less for health insurance for employees than say my local moving company does. Because of volumn discounts. Hillary's plan would make it so every company paid the exact same low price and anyone who was not employeed could have theirs paid by the government. She has always tried to find compromise and this one is not bad compared to what is currently happening. Eventually it could evolve into a single payer system but I doubt very much we will get that right out of the box...