The Clinton health plan required each US citizen and permanent resident alien to become enrolled in a qualified health plan and forbade their disenrollment until covered by another plan. It listed minimum coverages and maximum annual out of pocket expenses for each plan. It proposed the establishment of corporate "regional alliances" of health providers to be subject to a fee-for-service schedule. People below a certain set income level were to pay nothing. The act listed funding to be sent to the states for the administration of this plan, beginning at $4.5 billion in 1993 and reaching $38.3 billion in 2003.
In 2005, referring to her previous efforts at health care reform, Hillary Clinton said "I learned some valuable lessons about the legislative process, the importance of bipartisan cooperation and the wisdom of taking small steps to get a big job done."[24] Again in 2007, she reflected on her role in 1993-1994: "I think that both the process and the plan were flawed. We were trying to do something that was very hard to do, and we made a lot of mistakes."[29]
Hillary Clinton received hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from doctors, hospitals, drug companies, and insurance companies for her 2006 re-election in the Senate, including several insurance companies that were members of the Health Insurance Association of America that helped defeat the Clinton Health Plan in 1994.[19] Charles N. Kahn III, a Republican who was executive vice president of the Health Insurance Association in 1993 and 1994, refers to his previous battles with Clinton as "ancient history," and says "she is extremely knowledgeable about health care and has become a Congressional leader on the issue."[19]
In the years since the Clinton effort of 1993-1994, a combination of factors have kept health care off the top of the agenda. For example, politicians have not been eager to confront the forces that successfully frustrated the Clinton effort, and health maintenance organizations have been able to limit cost increases to some extent.[30]
The Clinton health care plan remains the most prominent national proposal associated with Hillary Clinton, and may influence her prospects in the 2008 presidential election. There are some similarities between the Clinton Health Plan and Republican Mitt Romney's health care plan that has been implemented in Massachusetts,[10][31] though Romney has since distanced himself from Clinton on the issue, in particular arguing that his plan calls for more control at the state level and the private market, not from the federal government.[32] According to Bill Maher, Clinton's attempts to distance herself from the original plan (stating in one debate, "We tried that in '93, and I've got the scars to prove it") are unwise because, in his view, she should be reminding other candidates of such similarities:[33]
“ And Hillary Clinton – I’ve heard her recently say, "Oh, yeah, we made a lot of mistakes back when I was doing health care; oh, I shouldn't have done this." [...] Instead of saying, "You know what? I kind of had it right back then, and you idiots went along with 'Harry and Louise', which were ads bought by the insurance companies." [...] And if you look at the plans that the other people have come up with, they're basically the same plan that she proposed. [...] And she's giving life to the lie. ”
Posted by Anonymous (not verified) on April 9, 2008 - 10:44pm.
The Clinton health plan required each US citizen and permanent resident alien to become enrolled in a qualified health plan and forbade their disenrollment until covered by another plan. It listed minimum coverages and maximum annual out of pocket expenses for each plan. It proposed the establishment of corporate "regional alliances" of health providers to be subject to a fee-for-service schedule. People below a certain set income level were to pay nothing. The act listed funding to be sent to the states for the administration of this plan, beginning at $4.5 billion in 1993 and reaching $38.3 billion in 2003.
In 2005, referring to her previous efforts at health care reform, Hillary Clinton said "I learned some valuable lessons about the legislative process, the importance of bipartisan cooperation and the wisdom of taking small steps to get a big job done."[24] Again in 2007, she reflected on her role in 1993-1994: "I think that both the process and the plan were flawed. We were trying to do something that was very hard to do, and we made a lot of mistakes."[29]
Hillary Clinton received hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from doctors, hospitals, drug companies, and insurance companies for her 2006 re-election in the Senate, including several insurance companies that were members of the Health Insurance Association of America that helped defeat the Clinton Health Plan in 1994.[19] Charles N. Kahn III, a Republican who was executive vice president of the Health Insurance Association in 1993 and 1994, refers to his previous battles with Clinton as "ancient history," and says "she is extremely knowledgeable about health care and has become a Congressional leader on the issue."[19]
In the years since the Clinton effort of 1993-1994, a combination of factors have kept health care off the top of the agenda. For example, politicians have not been eager to confront the forces that successfully frustrated the Clinton effort, and health maintenance organizations have been able to limit cost increases to some extent.[30]
The Clinton health care plan remains the most prominent national proposal associated with Hillary Clinton, and may influence her prospects in the 2008 presidential election. There are some similarities between the Clinton Health Plan and Republican Mitt Romney's health care plan that has been implemented in Massachusetts,[10][31] though Romney has since distanced himself from Clinton on the issue, in particular arguing that his plan calls for more control at the state level and the private market, not from the federal government.[32] According to Bill Maher, Clinton's attempts to distance herself from the original plan (stating in one debate, "We tried that in '93, and I've got the scars to prove it") are unwise because, in his view, she should be reminding other candidates of such similarities:[33]
“ And Hillary Clinton – I’ve heard her recently say, "Oh, yeah, we made a lot of mistakes back when I was doing health care; oh, I shouldn't have done this." [...] Instead of saying, "You know what? I kind of had it right back then, and you idiots went along with 'Harry and Louise', which were ads bought by the insurance companies." [...] And if you look at the plans that the other people have come up with, they're basically the same plan that she proposed. [...] And she's giving life to the lie. ”