Hillary To Announce Health Plan Today
Hillary Clinton is poised to re-enter ground that seriously damaged her political image 14 years ago, when she delivers a speech in Iowa at 11:30 ET today laying out her health care plan.
Based on previews of the plan given to the Associated Press, the plan contains a government mandate that individuals get health insurance, plus subsidies to help those who couldn't otherwise afford it. Clinton would also expand Medicare and the health plan offered to government employees, giving people the option of buying in. The total cost would be about $110 billion per year.
Based on what we've seen so far, the plan appears to be to the left of Barack Obama, who does not have an individual mandate in his plan, and more like the plan offered by John Edwards, which does have a mandate and also creates a government plan for people to join. Edwards has gone even further, openly speaking of his proposal as a potential transition to a single-payer system.
In addition, Hillary would place new regulation on insurance companies, requiring that they provide coverage regardless of pre-existing conditions — an idea sure to be opposed by the same insurance industry lobbyists and public relations people who helped derail "Hillary Care" in the 90's.
Comments (4)
Jane wrote on September 17, 2007 9:37 AM:Way to go, Hillary.
Daniel wrote on September 17, 2007 9:58 AM:With Clinton now at the mercy of small momentum swings in early states, she has to go to the left to appeal to the base in Iowa and New Hampshire -- something she did not think she would have to do when she thought she had the Florida firewall.
Lookingforhome wrote on September 17, 2007 10:13 AM:Something tells me that the Clinton team has had the fundamentals of this plan in the works for a while, considering how wonky and detail-oriented they are. Not to say that the difficulties created by Florida's "beauty contest" are not real, but that they changed the basic elements of this plan based on recent announcements by the Florida Dem's seems like a bit of a stretch.
bob wrote on September 17, 2007 2:46 PM:Having a so-called "individual mandate" requiring people to buy health insurance or else, possibly at the expense of other basic living needs, with punitive monetary penalties (or jail?), is not necessarily the progressive position in the healthcare debate.
