Although the Iowa caucus is still several months in the future, it is already obvious that health care will be a major issue in the 2008 presidential election.
Latest to throw her health care plan into the ring is none other than Hillary Clinton, already notorious for her failed attempt at health care reform back in 1993.
Highlights of the plan include:
....the choice [for Americans] to preserve their existing coverage, while offering new choices to those with insurance, to the 47 million people in the United States without insurance, and the tens of millions more at risk of losing coverage.
Americans [would be able to] keep their existing coverage or access [and would have access to] private insurance options that their Members of Congress receive through a new Health Choices Menu.... as part of the Federal Employee Health Benefit Program (FEHBP). In addition[, Americans would] be offered the choice of a public plan option similar to Medicare....
According to the Clinton campaign, job loss or family illnesses would never lead to a loss of coverage or exorbitant costs under the plan. In addition, the campaign claims the plan would:
....[create] a level-playing field of insurance rules across states and markets [and ensure] that no American is denied coverage, refused renewal, unfairly priced out of the market, or forced to pay excessive insurance company premiums.
And how would this be done? According to the campaign:
....insurance companies [would] end discrimination based on pre-existing conditions or expectations of illness.... while drug companies [would] offer fair prices and accurate information.
Also, much like Mitt Romney's Massachusetts Connector health plan, each American would be required by law to have health insurance under Hillary's scheme. In the words of her campaign:
Individuals [would] be responsible for getting and keeping insurance in a system where insurance is affordable and accessible.
And there is also the whiff of "Pay or Play":
Employers [would] help finance the system; large employers [would] be expected to provide health insurance or contribute to the cost of coverage; small businesses [would] receive a tax credit to continue or begin to offer coverage.
And there's more. "Working families" - however that overused term is defined - would score a refundable tax credit to buy health coverage. There would be a new health care tax credit for small businesses to provide an incentive for job-based coverage. In addition, a new tax credit for qualifying private and public retiree health plans will offset a significant portion of catastrophic expenditures, so long as savings are dedicated to workers and competitiveness.
Potentially, the plan could have profound implications for employers. In addition to the plan's "Pay or Play" aspect, would be employees might ultimately have to produce proof of health insurance before they could be employed. According to the Associated Press:
[Hillary] said she could envision a day when "you have to show proof to your employer that you're insured as a part of the job interview — like when your kid goes to school and has to show proof of vaccination," but said such details would be worked out through negotiations with Congress.
In other words, employers would become the Health Insurance Police under this system, a potentially burdensome and intrusive scheme with Big Brother implications.
It will be interesting to see the political response to the plan. Here's Salon's take:
In political terms, [Hillary's] new healthcare plan plays against type. Rather than being timid and incremental, her proposals are as ambitious as those offered by John Edwards, who was the first major Democrat to offer a plan for universal coverage. (Dennis Kucinich remains a voice in the wilderness with his call for a government-run single-payer plan.) Like Edwards, she would legally mandate that uninsured individuals obtain health coverage -- and would provide hefty subsidies for those who cannot afford it on their own. The Clinton and Edwards plans (along with a more narrowly drawn proposal advanced by Barack Obama) would be largely financed by rolling back the Bush era tax cuts for those earning more than $250,000.
Hillary Care 2.0 is a "government command and control" system that is not all that different from 1993's Version 1.0, according to Rudy Giuliani, who told reporters in Florida:
"Let’s put people in charge of our health care. And the reality is the only thing that brings down cost and increases quality is a large consumer market, not government command and control."
