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Senator Clinton's Health Care Reform Plan: "The American Health Choices Plan"

Tuesday Sep 18, 2007

Senator Clinton's Health Care Reform Plan: "The American Health Choices Plan" in Politics and Legislation

New York Senator and democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, finally mapped out her reform proposal in Des Moines, Iowa. Senator Clinton has been under some scrutiny for waiting so long to offer a plan.

Senator Clinton's plan, titled the "American Health Choices Plan," would reform and strengthen the current employer-based health care system, and provide more affordable private and public individual options. Her plan requires all Americans secure health coverage — but poorer individuals will receive government subsidies and small businesses will get tax credits for help in obtaining insurance.

“Part of our health care system is the best in the world, and we should build on it; part of the system is broken, and we should fix it,” said Senator Clinton.

Clinton emphasized that she learned from the missteps of her unsuccessful plan in the early 1990s as the First Lady. One downfall of her previous plan was that it affected too many people who were happy with the health insurance they had. She says her new plan gives Americans choice, not forceful change.

“I learned that people who are satisfied with their current coverage want assurances that they can keep it,” Clinton said.

Her plan will cost an estimated $110 billion per year. The funding will come mostly from rolling back President Bush's tax cuts for those with annual incomes of over $250,000 and the savings of the new system, reported the New York Times.

Republican contender for the presidency, Mitt Romney, already accused Senator Clinton's plan of undermining the private marketplace. But Clinton countered.

“This is not government-run: There will be no new bureaucracy. You can keep the doctors you know and trust. You keep the insurance you have, if you like that. But this plan expands personal choice and keeps costs down,” she explained.

Now that her plan is out in the open, look for the health care pros from both sides of the aisle to look for holes.

Comments[2]

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Comments:

Would you say this plan is very similiar to socialized medicine? For the population who can't afford healthcare coverage, would the over $250,000 income per year crowd be the ones who have to pay for this subsidised program? How much will this program cost for a national offering?

Posted by chris noellert on January 17, 2008 at 05:28 PM CST #

The question of socialized medicine is very valid, one that will certainly be at the center of the health care debate in this year's presidential election.

Senator Clinton's plan would increase the role of government of health care, including the expansion of some federal programs such as the State Children's Health Insurance Plan and Medicaid. This would all require funding. The question is whether these expansions and other parts of her plan equals "socialized medicine."

Some elements of her plan wouldn't be considered socialized medicine, such as keeping the private health insurance industry in tact. But she does put more government restrictions on insurance companies.

As for the funding, her plan rolls back the tax cuts for Americans who earn more than $250,000 per year. That's bulk of the funding for her plan estimated to cost $110 billion a year. So essentially, high income Americans would largely fund this plan.

To look into Senator Clinton's plan further, our Research Team has put together a site devoted to the health care proposals of all the candidates.

Here's Senator Clinton's page, including links to her homepage and other resources:

http://www.gohealthinsurance.com/politics/hillary-clinton.html

Posted by The Research Team on January 18, 2008 at 10:09 AM CST #