Heaven help us, Hillary's got a new health care plan

Is Hillary Clinton trying to shift talk from Iraq to health care? She's certainly not doing a very good job at pleasing the rabid wing of the Democratic party right now. Her ideas on health care were a disaster in 1993 and I predict they will be a disaster this time. However, there are parts of her plan that sound very interesting (CSM)

Hillary Clinton is the last of the Democrats to launch her health care plan. I'm wondering how much this plan is going to cost, and who is going to pay for it. John Edwards and Barack Obama have already decided their plans would be paid for by eliminating tax cuts on high-income Americans. 'High income' means YOU. Republicans seem to be against a national health care program and in favor of "providing tax incentives that make it easier for consumers to buy coverage from private insurers." Rudy Giuliani is suggesting a $15,000 tax incentive.

The last piece of Clinton's health plan, to be announced in a speech Monday in Des Moines, Iowa, will focus on insuring the uninsured, a segment of the population that has swelled to 47 million people in the US, out of a population of 300 million. According to published reports, citing Clinton aides speaking on background, the senator's proposal would require insurance companies to accept all applicants for coverage and would limit insurers' ability to charge higher premiums because of preexisting conditions.

The plan, these aides and advisers say, would also aim to make health insurance more affordable for those who already have it. She aims to have universal healthcare in the United States by the end of her second term, a goal analysts call optimistic.

Clinton has already unveiled portions of her healthcare plan. They include: a "prevention initiative" to help people avoid contracting preventable conditions, focus on improving care for the chronically ill, establishment of a public-private "best practices institute," easing restrictions drug imports, requiring Medicare to negotiate for lower drug prices, and computerization of healthcare records.

Remember that 7 million of those 47 million uninsured are ILLEGAL ALIENS.

The Census Bureau Data is Misleading - Analysis of data from earlier Census Bureau and other government reports shows that roughly 7 million are illegal immigrants; roughly 9 million are persons on Medicaid; 3.5 million are persons already eligible for government health programs; and approximately 20 million have, or live, in families with incomes greater than twice the federal poverty level, or $41,300 for a family of four.

GoozNews says the devil is in the details of Hillary's plan. A must read article.

See:

Universal Health Care - Presidential Candidates at Web Metrics Guru
Hillary proposes health care for all at That's Fit
Outside the Beltway has a nice article on health care in England

Comments

[Terri@steelmagnolia]

Oh boy.. this is not good...

and for a while ... I was desperate and I wanted this sort of thing... My husband straightened me out.....

when our baby almost ran out of health insurance by the time he was 10 months old...

I was scared to DEATH...
we had no good options...

(what was suggested most was to get a divorce)

we were not eligible to purchase private insurance for Matthew due to the pre existing clause ...

we were not eligible for HIPPA protection...

since we earned over the poverty leved, Matthew didn't qualify for regular Medicaid ...

we were doomed...doomed... doomed... how could we care for this baby w/o health insurance on a police officer salary....

no one I know, earns enough to cover Matthew's extensive medical care...

(he will need open heart surgeries for the rest of his life... however long that may be)

I live in fear everyday... of running out again...

Something needs to be done.

We have testified before the Nevada legislators twice ...
and have been in the local news and newspapers...

Everything was out of our control ... there was nothing we could have done to prevent what happened...

The healthcare issue is a scary one....

Oh.. BTW... the LVMPD voted to raise the lifetime cap last November ... THANK GOD...
so, all police officers and their families in LV now have a 5 million dollar lifetime cap.

[Phil]

Rastaman,

With one little exception to your idea of which is completely off base to start with, the War is working and if we don't fight for Victory there none of those other things will matter after the Jihadist cut your head off.

Come on man think with something other than a darn hat rack.

[Paul Champagne]

Step one should be tort reform. We need to bring the cost of health care down so that more people can afford it. Having health insurance for your family shouldn't cost more than your monthly mortgage ... for many Americans that is the case.

[David M]

Trackbacked by The Thunder Run - Web Reconnaissance for 09/17/2007
A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day...so check back often.

http://thunderrun.blogspot.com/2007/09/web-reconnaissance-for-09172007.html

[American Interests]

The price tag is reported to be $110 billion per year! Clinton’s “American Health Choices Plan” represents her first major effort to achieve universal health coverage since 1994, when the plan she authored during her husband’s first term collapsed in a heap...

[Bill Mitchell]

Insurance companies will be "forced" to insure people with pre-existing conditions?

So I have cancer that will costs an insurer $2 million a year and they are "forced" to insure me for $200 a month?

Yes, THAT will work.

[heidianne jackson]

dead on, debbie. i love this conversation, "so we need universal health care because we expect people to pay for themselves?" "yes, the government is supposed to take care of people." "ok, so it would be a good thing to wait 5 months for an evaluation for a disease that will kill you in 3 months?" "i don't know why you right wingers always have to be so hateful!"

[Rastaman]

No one can grasp a number as large as one thousand thousand thousand thousand. Dollars. Human minds simply can't comprehend such a large number.

That's One Trillion Dollars.

If we can spend One Trillion Dollars on a hopeless war in Iraq, we can rebuild all the schools and all the bridges in America.

If we can spend One Trillion Dollars on a hopeless war in Iraq, we can provide the best health care in the entire world for all americans.

If we can spend One Trillion dollars on a hopeless war in Iraq, we can build a 60 foot high electrified fence from one end of the Mexican border to the other and hire 10,000 guards to man it and have billions of dollars left over.

We could have done so very much...

Rastaman

[Brad marston]

Debbie,

You are exactly right. The 45 miilion uninsured number is bullshit. Make health insurance mandatory like auto insurance and tell the people with the plasma tv but no health insurance to get their priorities straight.

[Ted]

Any type of Health Care plan has to be better than what we have going on right now.

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Number of Operations Iraq Freedom and Enduring Freedom casualties as confirmed by U.S. Central Command: 4198