Why? Because it would require people to buy goods from private companies, without being able to opt-out.
So says Karl Manheim, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, and Jamie Court, chairman of Consumer Watchdog in Santa Monica, Calif.
Don’t think that just because Clinton’s plan would have “covered everyone,” that it is better than Obama’s. Clinton’s plan would be a boon for the private insurance industry — not for families.
I guess it’s a moot point at this time; she can’t get the nomination.
To cover everyone, a better option is universal single payer government provided healthcare.
1 response so far ↓
Lori // May 10, 2008 at 7:03 pm
Your post is factually wrong on it’s main point. Clinton’s plan, like Edward’s plan, allows for a public insurer - basically Medicare for everyone. This would be an insurance entity which was not profit oriented but which is mandated to provide the same level of care that private insurers are mandated to provide. So, no, you wouldn’t be forced to buy healthcare from private companies. If you don’t want to buy it from private entities, then you can buy it from the public entity. The other important aspect of the public insurer, is that it forces private insurers to compete with an insurance entity that provides high quality care and doesn’t collect profit - which will drive insurance premiums down while keeping services high. Why will it do that? Because if insurance companies don’t lower their premiums, more people will quickly jump to the public insurer. It will be necessary to lower premiums to compete.
Clinton would agree with you that single payer is better but there is no way to get that through Congress. One of the effects of the public insurer in her plan is to tilt the playing field toward single payer. Because it would provide high quality care at a very low price, it would attract young, healthy adults as well as those with health issues. There would be no income restrictions - meaning, that if Bill Gates wants to use it for his family, he can. And if he wants to use it for all his employees, he can do that as well. Everyone will have access to a low-cost, high quality insurance program. The end result, is that it will debunk a lot of the myths about universal health care that have made it so difficult to pass in this nation.
Lastly, just a reminder, Clinton’s healthcare plan expands access to Medicaid which is the federal/state program which provides medical care for low income children and their parents. She would expand it to include adults that don’t have children, and increase the amount of support county facilities are receiving. So, homeless people and low income, working adults would be covered by Medicaid - they wouldn’t be spending their money on health insurance. For people with a little more income, she provides tax credits (similar to the Earned Income Tax Credit which has helped so many low income families) to help cover the cost of insurance, and caps it at a percentage of their income. She proposed expanding SCHIP to cover families of four, who earn $82k a year - so her interpretation of who needs help is pretty clear.
Lastly, if Clinton couldn’t still win, obama wouldn’t be running the campaign he is. You don’t attack and drive your negatives up if you don’t need to. He’d be looking for ways to win Clinton supporters to his side, and what he’s doing now is alienating them. The elephant in the room is that his white support is dropping, and he’s becoming less electable against McCain. On a state by state basis, polls show Clinton beating McCain in electoral votes. Obama loses that particular contest and his coalition is way to similar to the coalition that McGovern assembled. Clinton still has a very good shot at winning.
Cheers!
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