Junior Member
Hillary Announces Her Health Care Plan (Sorta)
Dear Alex,
Today in Iowa, I introduced my new plan to ensure that every American will have affordable, quality health care. But before I tell you about the plan, I want to tell you about Lisa Scott.
I met Lisa, who's from Greenville, Iowa, back in May. Six years ago, her daughter, Janelle, began having chest pains and blackouts, and she was sick for almost a year. Janelle requested a chest X-ray, but she never received it. Because while she was working two jobs, she didn't have health insurance and couldn't afford to pay for it out of pocket. One week later, at the age of 18, Janelle died. Her death certificate listed the cause of death as "unknown," because Janelle was never able to afford a proper diagnosis -- a diagnosis that might have saved her life.
For seven years, people like Lisa and Janelle have been invisible to George Bush. When I'm president, they won't be invisible to me. I promise to fight for families like theirs every day.
That's why I'm introducing the American Health Choices Plan. And I want to invite you to an interactive webcast this Tuesday night at 8 p.m. Eastern time, where I will answer your questions live about how my new plan to cover all Americans affects you. Visit my website to RSVP for the webcast and to get the full details of the plan.
Read the plan and RSVP for the webcast:
http://www.hillaryclinton.com/healthcare
We have a health care crisis in America -- and it's getting worse. I know we can do better. We can improve the quality of our health care, lower costs, preserve our choices, and ensure that every person in America has quality coverage.
My plan offers new choices for those who have insurance and coverage for those who don't. It ensures that care will be affordable and that insurance companies can no longer deny coverage because of preexisting conditions. It's a fiscally responsible plan that we can afford.
If you like the insurance you have now, you won't have to change a thing. But if you want to change your plan, or if you're one of the 47 million Americans who don't have coverage, you will have a variety of plans to choose from.
I have never wavered in my commitment to making sure that every single person in America has affordable, quality health care. And I have promised that as president, I will make universal coverage a reality.
The American Health Choices Plan is a roadmap that tells us how to get there. I hope you'll take a look at the plan, and join me for Tuesday evening's live webcast.
RSVP for the webcast and submit a question today:
http://www.hillaryclinton.com/healthcare
Thank you for all your support.
Sincerely,
Hillary Rodham Clinton
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So we still kinda have to wait for details. So far it sounds pretty good to me.
Member
In addition to the intention that every American have health coverage, this proposal addresses the major criticism of the right -- that the coverage would be in the form of a single-payer system and would put all current health insurers out of business. Clearly this wouldn't happen. Whether or not it will work as smoothly as the proposal remains to be determined (but whatever does work so well?), but it certainly is a step in the right direction.
My goal in life is to be as good a person as my dog thinks I am.
Unimatrix
Ok so I'm a healthcare insurance provider and so why I don't I charge the government a shitload more for insurance? It's not like the user/customer using it cares what it costs.Originally Posted by Thorn
As a customer/user why don't I get the most expensive "best" insurance coverage because it's the government that is paying.
How do you deal with that?
Junior Member
End the war. Undo the damage the Republicans have done to our budget. Use the money to save the lives of US citizens by giving them health care.
And we'll have to see how Hillary wants to address those. Apparently we won't see a full reveal until tomorrow.
Member
I read the plan, or what's available for public consumption at any rate. The government is not paying for the insurance; the whole single-payer issue is tabled.. The proposal makes it necessary that such insurance should be available, however.
My goal in life is to be as good a person as my dog thinks I am.
Junior Member
Is that how it works? It looked to me like the government is going to be offering alternative plans for people who want to switch or people who have no health insurance. Though it doesn't look like it'll be free either.
Unimatrix
Ok the Iraq war costs about 70 billion a year, well let's say 80 billion to help you out.
So Medicaid costs almost $350 billion a year and Medicare also costs almost $350 billion a year. Based on those numbers (and they are climbing fast), universal healthcare that is for EVERYONE will cost well over a trillion per year.
Your trade of war costs for healthcare leaves you short of almost a trillion.
Unimatrix
The only reason anyone would switch is if it cost less and it can only do so with it being subsidized, this basically and gradually becomes just another Medicaid and Medicare as more private employers will dump coverage to get the middle class onto it. Which means the costs will balloon very quickly.
Junior Member
By the way, with Medicaid the government doesn't contract with insurance carriers, they contract with individual doctors.
Junior Member
Affordable: Unlike the current health system where insurance premiums send people into bankruptcy, the plan provides tax credits for working families to help them cover their costs. The tax credits will ensure that working families never have to pay more than a limited percentage of their income for health care.
Available: No discrimination. The insurance companies can't deny you coverage if you have a pre-existing condition.
Reliable: It's portable. If you change or lose your job, you keep your health care.
If you have a plan you like, you keep it. If you want to change plans or aren't currently covered, you can choose from dozens of the same plans available to members of Congress, or you can opt into a public plan option like Medicare. And working families will get tax credits to help pay their premiums.
Small businesses are the engine of new job growth in the U.S. economy but face bigger challenges when it comes to providing health care for their employees. Hillary would give tax credits to small businesses that provide health care to their workers to help defray their coverage costs. This will make small businesses more competitive and help create good jobs with health benefits that will stay here in the US.
Insurance companies won't be able to deny you coverage or drop you because their computer model says you're not worth it. They will have to offer and renew coverage to anyone who applies and pays their premium. And like other things that you buy, they will have to compete for your business based on quality and price. Families will have the security of knowing that if they become ill or lose their jobs, they won't lose their coverage.
Nobody has worked harder or longer to improve health care than Hillary Clinton. From her time in Arkansas when she improved rural health care to her successful effort to create the SCHIP Children's Health Insurance program which now covers six million children, Hillary has the strength and experience to ensure that every man, woman and child in America has quality, affordable health care.
Junior Member
This doesn't look like universal health care at all, nor does it appear to mirror Medicaid.
Unimatrix
Yes thank you for your Hillary spam ib1, I already read it once.
So once this passes then you won't support any more extension of it, and if a leftist politician comes along and wants government run universal healthcare you will oppose that?
Senior Member
I like this part...
Joking that her proposals "won't make me the insurance industry's woman of the year," Clinton said companies would no longer be able to deny coverage for pre-existing conditions or genetic predisposition to certain illnesses.
...
Are you kidding? The insurance companies will adore her. She is forcing everyone to buy insurance and subsidizing it. This is why they have donated big money to her campaigns.
Senior Member
Unimatrix
That's true. There are plenty of people who opt not to buy insurance and pay for healthcare when needed, they will no longer be free not to pay for it.
We are pretty much losing the last big competitive difference we have with the rest of the industrialized world.
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