Hillary's Health Care Do Over
By Richard H Collins Posted in 2008 — Comments (13) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Hillary Clinton is asking for a giant do over when it comes to health care reform. After nearly single handedly bringing about the failure of her husband’s health care package, the former first lady careful crafted her latest proposal to appear different in style and substance from her earlier attempt. Don’t be fooled, however, this is simply a smaller step toward the same goal.
She would like you to believe that her plan is reasonable and cost effective reform. But no matter how many times she uses the word choice or insists that her plan doesn’t involve a new government bureaucracy, the fact is that this plan is another step toward government-controlled health care.
Read more below.
Hillary’s plan mandates health care coverage for both employers and individuals. Employers have to offer it and individuals, regardless of their employment, have to have it. Her plan doesn’t specify the punishments for failing to comply - she is leaving that decision up to Congress. She did, however, go so far as to suggest that proof of health insurance could be required in order to get a job! So we once again have government deciding what you can and can’t do to provide for yourself and your family.
Secondly, if coverage is required someone is going to have to decide what qualifies as such. Do you think this is going to be left to individuals? No, there will soon be standards and regulations that specify exactly what type of insurance and coverage are required, the documents required, etc. Hillary argues that her plan won’t require a new government bureaucracy, but this assertion requires, to adopt her own turn of phrase, a “willing suspension of disbelief.” Government mandates always mean more oversight, more paper work, and more bureaucracy.
By refusing to allow insurance companies to manage risk and allocate costs Hillary’s plan will also inevitably lead to rationing of care. When you socialize and subsidize costs you get increased costs because the end user isn’t paying the true cost of the care if something is free or cheap why not use more of it. At some point the costs are going to be prohibitive and the government will step in to impose restraint. This means limiting care or access to care.
In the same way by socializing costs and removing the profit motive, Hillary’s plan will stifle the very innovation that has led to so many health care breakthroughs. Instead of allowing private research to lead the way, she proposes a government agency to study best practices and recommend cost saving measures. When was the last time a government panel outperformed the private sector?
As if this increasing government control and involvement wasn’t bad enough, Hillary’s plan willfully ignores the looming entitlement crises, will lead to higher taxes, and undermine economic growth.
Hillary’s plan simply wishes away fundamental economics. The laws of supply and demand do not go away by wishing them so. And the nature of government control doesn’t change simply by saying the word choice over and over again.
Hillary promises everything to everyone: refundable tax credits and increased spending on government programs for those who can’t afford coverage; mandated coverage for everyone no matter what the health condition; tax credits for small businesses that can’t afford to offer coverage.
It doesn’t take an accountant to figure out that this sort of system is going to cost a lot of money. This means higher taxes. Oh sure, Hillary promises she will only tax the rich. But as the spending goes through the roof watch how surprisingly broad the definition of “the rich” becomes.
On top of all of this, Hillary’s plan exacerbates the looming entitlement crisis. Entitlement programs like Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security are already causing budget problems at the state and federal level and the Baby Boom generation threatens to bankrupt the system. Hillary’s plan increases eligibility and spending on these very programs at a time when they threaten to bust the budget and stagnate the economy.
Don’t be fooled by the spin. Hillary’s latest proposal is simply a better packaged less complicated version of the government run monstrosity she proposed previously. It may take a few more steps to get there, but it is still the path to government run health care.
Richard H. Collins is the founder of StopHerNow.com, a website dedicated to educating the public about Hillary Clinton’s liberal record.
He made what had to be the most telling points on this subject.
1. He tried to work with her on the original. He wanted her to take steps in the direction she wanted to go.
2. She wanted an omnibus bill to handle the problem once and for all
3. This meant re engineering 16% of the US economy, and was equivalent to regulating the entire chinese economy.
4. Hillary felt she was up to the job.
The old quote "A government thats big enough to give you everyhting you want is big enough to take everything you have" really applies here. She is drinking her own koolaid about being the smartest woman in the world. If elected the rest of us will be as well, whether we want to or not.
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"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
...healthcare. I don't think she's doctrinaire about single-payer, as most Lefties are.
Both HillaryCare-Classic and New HillaryCare are actually political initiatives, not healthcare initiatives. The idea is to come up with something that everyone with a stake in the game can bite off on. I think her goal is not to fix healthcare, but simply to go down in history with something huge attached to her name, like FDR did.
Nothing if not hubristic, Hillary professes to have been amazed that her original, secretly-developed effort was not accepted ecstatically by all and sundry. Presumably her approach this time will be identical but more consultative.
Everything you've said in this diary about the defects of HillaryCare is true, but also well-known to anyone who's looked closely at it. The only way to make everyone happy is with money.
If HillaryCare is enacted, one assumes there will be a gap between what it would cost to provide everyone with healthcare that is not price-disciplined, and what the country can afford to pay for it. Hillary may imagine that the existing private-payer infrastructure can achieve the rationing needed to fill this gap.
But if we're really going to go down this road, wouldn't it be far simpler and easier to just extend Medicare to every American?
Alone among large countries, American has chosen to socialize medicine only part-way. Being a fairly doctrinaire free-marketer myself, I like to imagine that this has resulted in health outcomes that on the whole are the best in the world.
The grand bargain that Americans stand on the edge of making in the next Presidential election is to trade absolute quality of medical outcomes for universal provisioning of something that may or may not be as good.
It would be great to see full market-discipline come to medicine, with the abolition of tax preferences for employer-provided insurance, medical-savings accounts, and de-regulation of the insurance industry. While I'm dreaming, I'd like a pony too.
... but did you say do-over or screw-over?
Hence, the heavy management of 'exposure'.
Sure is good to know that she does not claim to be a lesbian.
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Vista really sucks!
why Hillary's propsal is not good for America.
Unfortunately the way she is playing it (and she will certainly be unchallenged by fawning media) there is supposed to be no noticible difference for the 85% of the country that has either private insurance, Medicare or Medicaid coverage right now. The average person that falls in that 85% is hearing the seemingly innocuous details of this plan (no change in their coverage).
The spin on her plan is that it only effects the 47MM people without coverage now. I am assuming that about 12MM of those people are illegal immigrants who will not/should not be eligible for government funded coverage. Of the remaining 35MM without insurance, how many can afford it if they are forced to get it? I have no idea, but some amount can afford it, and some amount will have to be subsidized. It sounds like her estimated subsidy cost is $110BN. I have no idea how accurate or not that number is.
But the problem for us is, on its face the 85% of the country with coverage right now feels no impact from her plan, except to the extent that they are "rich" and are going to be stuck with the $110BN (or whatever) tab.
I will give her credit, this is a politically well crafted plan, it will not be as easy to make the case why this plan is not good for America as in 1994 when she was trying to cram a single payer system down our throats.
as a catch phrase for HillaryCare..
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"Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm." -- James Madison
The convenience of government surplus cheese, the speed of the DMV, the friendliness of the IRS, and the accuracy of the weather service... coming soon to your hospital!
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About Hillary's plan...
I just saw her on FNS. She said we all have a shared responsibility. How many socialist buzz words will she use before everyone not just this site wakes up to the idea that she is a communist.
Also she said that she could see proof of Insurance maybe a requirement of getting a new job. If everyone gets Insurance through their employer how would an unemployed person do that?
"The nine most dangerous words in the English language are 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help'"
Ronald Reagan
I don't think for one second that Hillary actually believes the poor and unemployed have to show proof of insurance to work. How will all the illegals get jobs?
Nah.. I don't buy it. Her plan puts the responsibility on the individual to the benefit of business, especially insurers. That's not the Hillary I know.
Point that Dick Morris just wrote about. The issue of illegals has not been fleshed out yet by Hillary. In fact most of the permanently uninsured are here illegally.
She absolutely puts most of the burden on employers. Corporations will now be forced to provide health insurance. In fact, all businesses will be required to provide health Insurance for their employees but the yet not defined small businesses will get a tax break for providing it. That is one of the flaws of the plan. How will we figure out what business is eligible for a break? How will the government enforce this? This all sounds like new government bureaucracy and of course what does Reagan think of all of this...
"The nine most dangerous words in the English language are 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help'"
Ronald Reagan
When it comes to any idea from Hillary, the devil is in the details. At whatever point we decide who is going to carry the Conservative banner, we had better be prepared to pull out all the stops to drop her in her tracks. She's seducing the Democrat hardliners into bringing back the "Hill and Bill Show", and they've fallen for it. Hillary care is just the first nugget of her socialistic plan. In this country, how is it anyone is so gullible to believe this person, who has done nothing of note in her life except to marry to Bill Clinton, is qualified to lead this country. Makes me gag.