Monday, September 17, 2007

Clinton unveils health-care proposal

As with fashion, everything old becomes new again in the public policy realm -- and Hillary Clinton is among the presidential candidates currently talking up universal health-care:

From Boston.com:

Hillary Clinton today became the latest Democratic presidential candidate to unveil a plan for universal health care, and in her case that means confronting the demons of her spectacular failure to remake the American health care system while First Lady in 1993 and 1994.

Her plan is far less radical this time, building on existing public and private insurance systems to extend coverage to 47 million uninsured Americans while trying to give those who have coverage more choices on health plans.

Like the landmark Massachusetts health reform, Clinton would require people to obtain insurance, while offering subsidies to those unable to afford it. Her plan would offer tax credits to working families and to small businesses. Clinton would require large businesses to provide insurance for employees or help pay for it and would raise taxes on the wealthy to help cover the cost for those less able to pay for it. She put the government's cost at $110 billion a year.

The plan is similar to proposals offered by other Democrats.

Still, Clinton's plan, even before she unveiled it during a speech in Iowa, came under attack from both Republican and Democratic presidential rivals.

Yesterday, the New York Times' Week in Review had a good analysis of whether these kinds of proposals will make it any further than in the past:

Rarely does a politician, a party or a political system get a chance at a do-over.

Yet when Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton rolls out her comprehensive health plan in Iowa on Monday, it will be just that: Mrs. Clinton, or whoever the next president might be, has a second chance to fix a system that has, in many ways, deteriorated in the 14 years since the Clintons’ last attempt at an overhaul.

But will it turn out any differently this time? Can another big national health plan survive the furious lobbying of the interest groups, the divisions between the parties, the ambivalence of the public?

It is, clearly, a moment of political opportunity: Strong majorities of Americans, once again, tell pollsters they want guaranteed health care for all. Some of the most powerful interest groups — representing business, labor, hospitals and insurers — have tried to set aside their differences to call for action.

The number of uninsured is approaching 50 million, the average cost of family coverage has risen 78 percent in the last six years, and more and more employers say they cannot afford to provide health coverage and still compete in a global marketplace.

The major Democratic presidential candidates have offered plans aimed at expanding coverage and lowering costs — Mrs. Clinton’s is only the latest — and the major Republican candidates acknowledge that there are serious problems in the system.

But it is worth remembering: Health care reform seemed inevitable in the early 1990s, too.

2008 presidential race | Healthcare