Monday, September 17, 2007

Hillary's health plan to be revealed today

Hillary Clinton will be unveiling details of her health care proposal later today. Briefly, the plan would require everyone to carry health insurance and offer federal subsidies to help reduce the cost of coverage.
The centerpiece of Clinton's plan is the so-called "individual mandate," requiring everyone to have health insurance — just as most states require drivers to purchase auto insurance. Rival John Edwards has also offered a plan that includes an individual mandate, while the proposal outlined by Barack Obama does not.
Edwards and Obama may be worried about reaction to her plan if this poll holds up after the public learns about the details.
Clinton's previous effort gives her a voice of authority on health-care coverage now, with 65 percent of Americans in a July Gallup poll expressing ``a great deal'' or ``a fair amount'' of confidence in her on the issue. That's more than any other White House contender.
According to Ezra Klein, Edwards is already on the offensive:
Which may help explain why the Edwards campaign, concerned that they could lose their advantage on the issue, has decided to do the Clinton camp one better and has scheduled a speech outlining their strategy -- as distinct from their policy plan -- for passing health care reform. In the speech, Edwards will directly attack Clinton's performance in 1994, her willingness to take donations from insurance and pharmaceutical lobbyists, and announce that on his first day in office, he'll submit a bill terminating the health coverage of the president, the Congress, and all political appointees if Congress fails to pass health reform by July 20th, 2009. In other words, he'll begin raising the stakes on the candidates' political commitments to passing health reform, rather than their policy documents. Should be interesting... [emphasis mine]
Interesting is right. Edwards is delivering his speech as I type and he's getting a good reaction from the crowd.
And his plan to end coverage for Congress if they don't pass health care just got a huge, 20- or 30-second ovation. "It's time for our government, for our Congress, to feel the pressure...to understand that health care isn't a political, but a moral, issue."
We'll have to wait to see the details from Clinton's health plan, but one thing is certain, voters want health care fixed, which may account for the "take no prisoners" attitude .

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I said this over there, and I might as well add it here too:

"...on his first day in office, he'll submit a bill terminating the health coverage of the president, the Congress, and all political appointees if Congress fails to pass health reform..."

::cough cough::

As President, he'll introduce a bill? I think only Senators and Congresspeople can submit bills.

He should clarify that little mistake before the right wing noise machine tries to derail his entire campaign by pointing out ad nauseum about his Constitutional shortcomings.

"invented the internet" anyone?

Kathy said...

Hi Midwestern, good catch, although I'm not sure if that's an exact quote from Edwards. The NY Times is quoting him this way:

Mr. Edwards, in remarks earlier today in Chicago, added a new proposal to his plan: He said that as president he would press legislation that ends health care coverage for the president, members of Congress and political appointees on July 20, 2009, until the Congress passes the Edwards health care plan.

Either way, you're right that Edwards could only suggest legislation and someone else would have to submit the bill.

As for the right wing noise machine, after 6 years of Bush and his "bloopers" they would have to be nuts to point fingers. They only do that to distract from the real issues anyway.

Praguetwin said...

Just to chime in from afar...

Health care is mandatory here. People pay along with taxes and if you quit your job, you must pay yourself (if you get laid off, the government pays your insurance).

Failure to pay does result in hefty fines.

.....for what it is worth.

Btw, might as well focus on fine tuning Clinton's plan as she is the only Democrat who has a chance to see the White House in 08.

Kathy said...

Praguetwin, does that mean you have no uninsured in your country? Are the fees based on a person's ability to pay?

I'm afraid you might be right about Hillary (she's at the bottom of my list at this point in time). She's continues to poll very well and she has been picking up some good endorsements. Clark was a real coup.