Sen. Clinton’s health care proposal is generally consistent with her fellow Democratic presidential candidates – universal coverage, an end to medical underwriting, most coverage delivered by private insurers.
Giuliani’s proposal is also not much different from other Republicans’. Expanded HSA accounts, big tax breaks to encourage individuals to buy plans, and emphasis on individual rather than employment-based coverage.
There are big differences between the plans, and huge implications for voters.
The Democratic plans will provide coverage for everyone (eventually) delivered mostly by private insurers, with providers, individuals, employers, and taxpayers funding the costs. The additional tax burden will be in the $90-110 billion range.
The GOP plans will provide tax breaks for people to try and find coverage thru the present system. Unlike the Clinton and Edwards proposals, none of the GOP candidates have disclosed where they will find the tax revenue to make up for the tax breaks.
The GOP programs are not ‘reform’. There is no evidence that these tax breaks will significantly improve the number of people with coverage, the quality of the care they get, or reduce the cost of insurance or medical care. None. Zippo. Nada. The GOP platforms are actually tax breaks, marketed as health care reform.
That’s fine, but rather disingenuous.
My bet is the Republican candidates will attempt to bludgeon Hillary et al with that hoary old attack slogan – socialized medicine. That may work in GOP primaries, but may be much less successful in the general election.
Why? Voters want health care reform. And only one party is serious about health care reform, and it isn’t the GOP.
Giving a taz break to someone who already has insurance is kind of like giving a school voucher to someone who sends their kids to private school – they already have the money – you just want to lower their taxes.
Those who don’t have insurance don’t have it because they cannot afford it, period. Not because they have to pay taxes on that money.
Let’s hope the American people are wise to this…
The cost of the Clinton plan is $110B but $56B of that will come from increased efficiencies, reducing Medicare Advantage overpayments, reduced need for DSH funding, etc. The added tax burden is only $54B and nearly all of that is from reversing the Bush tax cuts on households earning more than $250K per year.
It’s the best reform plan I’ve seen. Let’s hope it doesn’t get gutted and bastardized as it moves through Congress (I’m assuming Clinton will win with large Democratic majorities in both houses).
I think Senator Clinton is on the right track. What the single payer advocates on the left don’t seem to understand is that some 160-170 million Americans currently get their health insurance through an employer, and the vast majority of them are satisfied with it. They are not interested in trading their coverage for a single payer system that will require them to pay more taxes for less coverage than they have now. At the same time, the free market types on the right don’t understand that tax credits are nowhere near up to the job for helping those in the lower 50% of the income distribution purchase health insurance.
On the issue of getting rid of underwriting, Joe can probably speak to this better than I can, but I suspect that insurers wouldn’t have any problem with community rating and guaranteed issue if it also came with mandatory participation and, ideally, risk adjustment payments similar to what Medicare Advantage offers to insurers who bid for those contracts. Insurance exchanges would probably be needed to make that happen. People also need to understand, however, that under any reform approach that includes community rating, young, healthy people will pay much more for health insurance than they do now.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/09/17/clinton-health-plan-has-no-answers-for-
undocumented-immigrants/
Try it again… paste in 2 parts.
I have to say this….If your in America illegally what gives you the right to use a universal plan designed for citizens of the U.S. If you support a plan including illegal immigrants you support illegal immigration. How frustrating!! Key word used in this post ILLEGAL!