Monday, September 17, 2007

Hillary health care (part 2)


The press is abuzz today hyping up the fact that Hillary is going to unveil her health care plan today. (Of course, I'm a hypocrite for not only point this out but also making this a post of my own.) Here's the beginning of the AP article.
Des Moines, Iowa - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton is unveiling a sweeping health care proposal Monday that would require everyone to carry health insurance and offer federal subsidies to help reduce the cost of coverage.

Fulfilling a pledge to bring health care to all, Clinton's "American Health Choices Plan" has a price tag of about $110 billion per year. It represents her first major effort to achieve universal health coverage since 1994, when the plan she authored during her husband's first term collapsed.
Here's an interesting quote from today's CNN article citing why her first plan didn't work out...
As first lady in 1993 and 1994, Clinton spearheaded an effort that would have overhauled the provision of health care. Critics compared her plan to socialized medicine, and it was killed by opposition from special-interest groups -- including doctors and pharmaceutical companies.
I just love when docs are lumped together with pharmaceutical companies - and then blamed for the reason that the United States does not have "universal" health care - this is very Michael Moore-like. (Aside: It's always enjoyable to see MM being taken on by the main stream media like CNN and ABC.)

In case you were wondering, here is a decent AP article outlining the stated positions of the other presidential candidates. I'm no political pundit. But in just talking with people around town (supposed grassroots America), I believe that health care is the number one domestic issue that will shape next year's presidential election.

2 comments:

Your Mother said...

Actually, one of the reasons her health care plan didn't go over well in 1994 is because most people were getting pretty good coverage from their employers; they didn't want to mess with that. A lot has changed since then: outsourcing, more expensive health insurance even through employers, and (now, for some) less equity in homes. The "people" are probably more open to these ideas this time around.

Anonymous said...

well, darn, for some reason my somewhat long response did not post. i'll start over but with a shorter version.

#1 Hillary's plan is a joke-it's clear she chose to remain in bed with Big Pharma and Insurance

#2 Although I don't agree with Michael Moore's tactics-we cannot deny our health care system is broken. Having said that, I am thankful his film has encouraged more people (finally) to talk about the sad state of health care.

# 3 I BLAME mainstream media like CNN and ABC for distracting the American people from the FACTS---we need a drastic change in our health care system. It's not the time for name-calling, etc. People ARE dying, look at the CDC stats and American Cancer Society stats. And it's time we DO SOMETHING about it and stop picking on Moore's half-truths or lies or whatever. If we do our own research, we'll see, yes..the system is BROKEN and CORRUPT. I'd like to see the media focus on the real problem. But, no, they're in bed with the very people who got us here.

# 4 I don't understand why people continue to throw around the phrase "socialized medicine". Oh no, that's bad, we can't let the government run our health care! Shame! The very same people trust the government completely with our military, our firefighters, our teachers....please explain this.


# 5 It's sad they lump doctors and pharmaceutical companies together but we all know there are many doctors who are paid very well by the pharmaceutical companies. it's a problem that needs to be addressed.

I've spent 21 years educating myself on my illness. i've spent over 20,000 of my own money on therapy and medications because my lovely BCBS plan does not cover my illness. They, like most insurance companies, discriminate against the mentally ill because, well, our illness is in our head. made up. not a real illness. And after recently being diagnosed with a disease of the uterus, surprise, surprise, they're not paying most of the bills. So, this month I'll mail my hefty premium so they can travel in their corporate jets between their multiple homes and I'll sit here and wonder how to pay my medical bills, my rent, my car payment, my electric bill...you get the picture. I should note, I'm one of the LUCKY ones. and that is tragic.