Hillary Clinton Health Care Issues

In 1993 First lady Hillary Clinton was assigned to a proposal to reform healthcare with the goal to become universal by US president Bill Clinton, this reform was titled Task Force on National Health Care Reform (Boundless, n.d.). At that time, 37 million Americans did not have health insurance and the cost to obtain health insurance was very unaffordable to the middle class (Boundless, n.d.). The main purpose of this reform was to mandate employers to provide health coverage to all employees HMOs’. However, this reform was aggressively opposed by the health insurance industry, libertarians, and conservative republicans stating that it was restrictive to the employees choice (Boundless, n.d.). Additionally, they argued that the proposal a

Universal health care coverage is a dream that the majority of Americans have had for many decades. It seemed that the dream could become a reality with a major effort under the Clinton administration in the mid 1990’s. This effort was spearheaded by the First Lady, Hillary Clinton, and would have established a universal health care system for the entire nation. Unfortunately, after years of work, the effort ended in failure due to trying to modernize and finance universal health care at the same time (Rodwin, 2003). When the current President, Barack Obama, campaigned in 2008, one of his cornerstone promises was to develop a healthcare system that would assure affordable healthcare for all Americans through the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obama Care. With only a slight majority of democrats in the Senate and a large majority of Republicans in the House, this would prove to be an uphill battle (Moore, 2014).

Healthcare is the improvement of physical and mental health through the assistance of medical services. The right to health care is an internationally recognized human right. In 1948, 48 nations, including the United States, signed the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. “In this document it is stated that everyone should have the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well being of oneself and one’s family, including medical care” (Right to Health Care ProCon.org). People have the right to receive the health care they deserve regardless of the costs. It is a basic human right to be provided with the medical care and assistance needed to live.

The issue of healthcare coverage under the federal health reform has been politically debated by many Americans, including the current Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. The healthcare reform enacted in 2010 under President Obama’s regime intended to support the ongoing healthcare system as a building block to enhance more access to health insurance coverage for millions of uninsured Americans; yet the government’s tireless effort to ensure all individuals are covered remains a major issue across the country.

Another big part of Hillary Clinton’s healthcare policy is making sure that all Americans have better affordability. Clinton recognizes that prescription costs, deductibles, and copays are all massively increasing (Clinton). One of her first acts would be to relieve heavy health cost burdens by offering a refundable tax credit of five thousand

If you’ve been avoiding going to the doctor for regular checkups, or for any other reason, because of the high cost of healthcare, you should know that a great health insurance policy can ensure that you will be able to see a doctor whenever you need to without breaking the bank. Though health insurance is important to have in case of medical emergencies, one of the most important reasons to have this kind of insurance is so that you can have ongoing healthcare that is designed not just to take care of urgent medical problems but that is designed to prevent problems before they happen. Here are some of the ways that great health insurance can lead to better health:

Health care has been in the forefront in U.S politics in the last 10 years due to the Affordable Care Act which passed leading to mixed results. This topic has divided political parties where the Republic party have gone against the passing of Obama Care and have considered it a failure. The push for more affordable health care is not the only issue facing the U.S. Government aid, it has been drastically cut leading to many free health services to be scarce. This is due in part by the political ideology of neo-liberalism which goes against policies like the Affordable Care Act. It calls for a push against government spending on public health care. While you have voiced in favor of the Affordable Care Act and increase in government spending for Health care, such as medications and services for mental health; you do not take into account racial and class inequalities in your policies which can greatly impacts their lives.

During the 1992 presidential campaign, Clinton promised to reform the health-care system, enact a tax cut for the middle class, reduce the federal budget deficit, and make major investments in the nation's highways, bridges, and hospitals to name a few (Dumas 4). The health-care reform was the most ambitious item on Clinton's campaign platform. He promised to fix the two major problems of American health care: rising costs and the widespread lack of coverage. A large number of Americans had neither private health insurance nor coverage under a government program. Others had coverage, but it would end if they quit or lost their jobs. So, in his campaign, Clinton promised to reduce their insecurity with the slogan "No American will go without health care" (Campbell 216).

Hillary Clinton’s health care plan, informally nicknamed “Hillarycare” by its opponents, was authoritatively known as the failed Health Security Act (HSA) of 1993. Clinton, the president’s wife during this particular administration, proposed this healthcare reform package. This reform created a task force to oversee the project in order to make sure that things were going in the proper direction. The primary goal of the Health Security Act was to propose a comprehensive plan to provide universal health care for all Americans to those that could not afford it or if it was not being offered through their place of employment. This plan is similar to what we know as Obamacare today. The dream that was once held in high regard by President Clinton and his wife came crashing down in just a matter of minutes.

Making funds affordable and giving people the ability to pay is creating better stability for this country. Hillary Clinton agrees with affordable healthcare and making it so people would actually be able to pay for healthcare. She says “Make sure the economy works for everybody” meaning that no

Right now, there are over forty million Americans are without healthcare coverage and millions more that are underinsured. Their families and they are struggling to afford medical care that should actually be provided to them. There are natural born rights that should be provided to all humans just because it’s morally right. Humans, being an intelligent species, should know that there are certain things that are needed to progress as a whole. Affordable healthcare coverage is one of those things that should be guaranteed to everyone. The United States is considered to be the greatest country to have ever been. A country that is supposedly home to the best hospitals and medical services does not even offer them to most of their people. Money is consistently being wasted and spent on healthcare that doesn’t even benefit the majority of the population. Health care coverage can mean life or death for a lot of people. Healthcare should be a human right; it should be affordable to everyone, regardless of how much money they make.

Rather than changing the current healthcare system like Bernie, Hilary plans on expanding the current plan, specifically expanding the Medicaid program. Under her plan, "Hillary will follow President Obama's proposal to allow any state that signs up for the Medicaid expansion to receive a 100 percent match for the first three years” (11). By doing so, she is trying to give access to Medicaid to more lower income families. Also, she is trying to give immigrants access to Medicaid and expand health care access to Americans that live in rural areas that have limited access or difficulty finding high quality affordable healthcare. Additionally, Hillary is a strong advocate for women’s rights and if elected president, Hillary is trying to fight for women to give them more rights when it comes to making decisions regarding their health, such as providing affordable preventive care, contraceptives, and access to safe, legal abortion. In order to pay for all this and combat the fear of spending too much on healthcare and reduce spending, she plans on reduce the cost of health insurance provided by making premiums more affordable and reduce out-of-pocket expenses. Hilary will provide a tax credit for families up to $5,000 in order to make this more affordable for U.S. citizens. Overall, Hillary will reduce out-of-pocket costs, making prescription drugs more affordable, and protecting women’s rights to the previously mentioned items and services in order to reduce spending and combat the fear of running out of funds for health care

Currently, the issue of health insurance has been a bone of contention for the public regarding whether the United States government should provide this health plan or not. People often possess different perspectives and refer to pros and cons on both sides of the spectrum. While some believes a universal healthcare system will set a foundation for a lower quality of service, increasing governmental finance deficit, and higher taxes, others do not hold the same thought. A universal healthcare system brings enormous advantages rather than disadvantages, such as all-inclusive population coverage, convenient accessibility, low time cost, and affordable medical cost, all of which not only provide minimum insurance to the disadvantaged but also improve the efficiency of medical resources distribution.

In this paper I will provide my understanding on why I feel Clinton’s Health Plan was unsuccessful. I will discuss the features of Clinton’s health care reform plan and provide my reasons I feel it failed. I will also discuss the influences of the various interests groups and governmental entities that were present during this process. Lastly I will discuss the policy process and policy environment key players that were involved and the other circumstances that shaped this policy-making effort.

I am currently under my parent’s health insurance and due to the politics of our country I will be covered until I reach the age of 26. AS of now I am under the health insurance provided by the company my mother works for. I have been extremely fortunate to live in a household where both of my parents have good health care and benefits due to the companies they work for. Despite my father having great health care I am under my mother’s because it comes with many perks and benefits such as eye and dental coverage on top of the health care.