[NYTr] Clinton unveils mandatory health care insurance plan

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

CNN - Sep 17, 2007
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/09/17/health.care/index.html?eref=rss_topstories


Clinton unveils mandatory health care insurance plan

DES MOINES, Iowa (CNN) -- Democratic presidential candidate Sen.
Hillary Clinton announced a $110 billion health care reform plan Monday
that would require all Americans to have health insurance.

 Clinton unveiled her "American Health Choices Plan," during a
high-profile speech at a hospital in the key campaign state of Iowa,
surrounded by supporters, American flags and campaign banners.

"Here in America people are dying because they couldn't get the care
they needed when they were sick.

"I'm here today because I believe it is long past time that this nation
had an answer," Clinton said. "I believe America is ready for change.

"It's time to provide quality affordable health care for every
American," Clinton said. "And I intend to be the president who
accomplishes that goal finally for our country."

A Clinton adviser compares the plan's "individual mandate" -- which
requires everyone to have health insurance -- to current rules in most
states that require all drivers to purchase auto insurance, according
to The Associated Press. 

 In her plan, Clinton said families would receive tax credits to help
pay for coverage. The tax credit would be designed to limit the
premiums to a percentage of a family's income.

Federal subsidies would be provided for those who are not able to
afford insurance, and large businesses would be expected to provide or
help pay for their employees' insurance.

Clinton said her plan would not require small businesses to take part,
but will offer tax credits to encourage them to do so.

About 46.6 million people in the United States were without health care
insurance in 2005, including 8.3 million children, according to a U.S.
Census Bureau report released last year.

 "I know my Republican opponents will try to equate this plan with
government-run health care. Well don't let them fool you again,"
Clinton said, explaining that her plan would allow participants to
"keep the doctors you know and trust" while it would expand "personal
choice" and keep costs down.

Clinton's package would also require insurers to provide coverage for
anyone who applies for it and would also bar insurance companies from
charging people with greater health care costs more for their premiums.

Under Clinton's plan, Americans would be offered the same health care
benefits of private health care plans offered to Congress through the
federal employee benefits program as well as a public program similar
to Medicare.

Americans satisfied with their current coverage will be allowed to keep
it, the Clinton campaign said.

To help pay for the plan, Clinton would also eliminate the Bush tax
cuts for those making over $250,000 and limit the amount employers can
exclude from taxes for health care benefits paid for those making over
$250,000.

Clinton's announcement marks her return to the health care game, nearly
a decade and a half after her first foray. As first lady, Clinton
spearheaded the Clinton administration's attempt to overhaul the
country's health care system in 1993 and 1994.

But critics attacked the Clintons' plan as socialized medicine, and it
was killed by opposition from congressional Republicans and many in the
medical and pharmaceutical industries. It was Clinton's biggest
political defeat.

Now Clinton is the third of the front-running Democratic White House
hopefuls to formally unveil her plan, following Sen. Barack Obama,
D-Illinois, and former Sen. John Edwards.

Supporters defend Clinton by saying that she has already made parts of
her proposals public, and she often speaks out publicly about her
health care plans.

Clinton's Democratic rivals wasted no time in reminding voters of her
timing.

"I commend Senator Clinton for her health care proposal," said Obama in
a statement. "It's similar to the one I put forth last spring, though
my universal health care plan would go further in reducing the
punishing cost of health care than any other proposal that's been
offered in this campaign."

Edwards, speaking Monday to the Laborers' International Union of North
America in Chicago, Illinois, echoed Obama.

"I'm glad that, today, the architect of the 1993 plan has another care
proposal -- and if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then
I'm flattered," said Edwards, a former U.S. senator from North
Carolina. "The lesson Senator Clinton seems to have learned from her
experience with health care is, 'If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.' I
learned a very different lesson from decades of fighting powerful
interests -- you can never join 'em, you just have to beat 'em."

Edwards' proposal would cut off health care for the president, Congress
and all political appointees in mid 2009, if a universal health care
plan for all Americans has not been passed by then.

Clinton's Democratic rival, Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, used her
past attempts at health care reform in criticizing Clinton's proposal.

"The mismanagement of the effort in 1993 and 1994 has set back our
ability to move toward universal health care immeasurably," Dodd said
in a statement. "We've known what the problems have been for nearly 15
years and what the solutions could be. What's been missing is
leadership that knows how to bring people together and get the job
done."

Clinton also took hits from GOP presidential hopefuls, including former
New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, whose criticism sounded like a movie
review.

"If you liked Michael Moore's 'Sicko,' you're going to love HillaryCare
2.0," said the Giuliani statement. "Senator Clinton's latest health
scheme includes more government mandates, expensive federal subsidies
and more big bureaucracy -- in short, a prescription for an increase in
wait times, a decrease in patient care and tax hikes to pay for it
all."

Another Republican White House hopeful, Mitt Romney, accused Clinton of
taking "her inspiration from European bureaucracies."

"Instead we should take our inspiration from the American people," said
the former Massachusetts governor. "Hers is a plan which I think
underscores the fact that she fundamentally does not believe in markets
and in the states. And I believe that our inspiration should come from
American families." 

CNN's Paul Steinhauser and Candy Crowley contributed to this report.

Copyright 2007 CNN.