Clinton and Dems REFUSED to Give Free Healthcare to Americans!?

Question

Clinton and the Democrats refused to give free healthcare to all Americans. They controlled the White House, Senate, and House during Clinton's first 2 years.

Yet they did NOT pass such a bill.

Amazingly, under Bush, Democrats have been squawking about not having universal healthcare.

Shouldn't Democrats castricize Clinton and their own party for this failure? No one forced them NOT to pass the bill. It was their own choice.

Answer 1

The Healthcare Time Line
January 25, 1993 - Clinton announces the formation of The President's Task Force on National Health Reform. The job of the task force, he says, is to "prepare health care reform legislation to be submitted to Congress within one hundred days of our taking office."
Early March 1993 - Sen. Robert C. Byrd, chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, and a recognized guardian of Senate procedure, blocks the Clinton reconciliation bill strategy. He is convinced the strategy amounts to a "prostitution of the process" by pushing through "a very complex, very expensive, very little understood piece of legislation."
May 20, 1993 - The first of four scheduled internal health-policy debates takes place at the White House. Clinton asks everyone present to keep the meeting private but the very next weekend accounts of the session appear in the Washington Post and the New York Times.
May 31, 1993 - The Clinton Health Care Task Force is officially disbanded.
Spring 1993 -When the employer mandate comes up the Senate Finance Committee, five Democrats join nine Republicans in killing it.
June 15, 1993 - House Democrat Jim Cooper -- who introduced a bill in 1992 based on the principle of managed competition -- meets with Hillary Clinton to explore their differences over health care. He has serious problems with employer mandates and universal coverage that are part of Clinton's plan and expresses his concern that the administration is being pushed to the left by liberals in the House. Cooper says he will not be able to support the Clinton plan unless changes are made.
Mid-July 1993 - David Gergen urges that the health care plan be delayed until 1994, but Hillary Clinton and Magaziner are convinced this would amount to a death sentence for health care reform. Among White House political strategists, the belief is that the legislation has to be introduced in September to have any chance of winning passage before the 1994 midterm congressional elections.
August 11, 1993 - Unhappy that his advisers are in disagreement, Clinton decides not to make any decisions until after his vacation.
August 16, 1993 - Despite the fact that major questions remain unsettled, Bill Clinton gives an outline of his health care reform plan to the National Governors' Association.
September 2, 1993 - Clinton's political and policy advisers agree on an explicit congressional strategy. Rather than start from the center, writing a bill that will appeal to conservative Democrats and moderate Republicans (while telling the liberals this is the best deal they can get), Clinton decides to follow a strategy of starting from the left and moving as far to the center as is needed to reach a majority.
Early October 1993 - Clinton's attention is distracted by crises in Somalia, Haiti and Russia, as well as the upcoming NAFTA vote.
October 27, 1993 - Clinton, in an attempt to recapture public support, formally presents his plan to Congress in a staged media event in the old chamber of the House.
November 1, 1993 - Hillary Clinton launches a scathing attack against the insurance industry .
November 20, 1993 - The Health Care bill is finally presented to Congress. It is the last day of the 1993 session. The legislation comes under immediate criticism from opponents -- including many Democrats -- who see in its length and language proof that their claims are correct: This is government-run health care.

Answer 2

No one, Democrat or Republican is going to give free health care. The AMA, the hospitals, the insurance and big pharma companies will not allow it. You know that.

The botched Hillary plan in 1993-4 was effectively torpedoed. Don't you remember the ads?

The health care mess is not helped by this kind of false information. We don't want socialized medicine here. Look at the UK where if you want good care you have to go to a private physician. But we do need some sort of affordable insurance.

Answer 3

Actually, during his first term, Clinton proposed a single payer plan, that proved extremely unpopular with Americans. To the best of my knowledge, no one else has tried. The health care situation has deteriorated significantly in the last 12 years, and there's a new call for a similar, but tweaked plan. Health care costs in the private sector have risen dramatically and the bulk of that increase is due to compensating for the costs of the un and underinsured.

Answer 4

Universal healthcare is also called socialized medicine. The US is not likely to adopt a socialist program.

Universal healthcare is not 'free'. You are obligated to buy health insurance. Your taxes really reflect all this 'free' healthcare. You end up with a lot of people abusing the system (people taking their kids to the doctor twice a week). I guess that sort of makes up for the number of people who never see a doctor.

Answer 5

The US will NEVER have free healthcare. This is because healthcare is an EXTREMELY big business.

They give you label of patient....let's look closer....you are really a customer.

Would you, as a part of either the government or the healthcare industry, let any law pass that will stop the money flow into YOUR business??

Answer 6

I love their accents :D especially little kids!!! its one of the reasons beside the good universities that I want to move there, I want my children to have that accent :) Also, I love their vocabulary and the people I have met from Britain so far have been really nice :) I'm only jealous that they get to drink 3 years before us, and they have some of the most fittest famous chaps (1D, the Harries twins, Marcus Butler and more).

Answer 7

There has never been universal health care so what the hell are people screaming about. Nothings been taken away and I sure as hell don't want to pay for it. Clinton is gone, let's just say "lesson is learned" and not do it again.

Answer 8

No they should not castricize Clinton
if the countrry had free health care that would mean that the gov't has more control. What we need is a smaller gov't not a larger.
Get with it man!

Answer 9

We as Americans are so far behind other countries that do have health care. The greed stops it here in America. Greed is the Reps - word for the decade, oh - my bad, I mean FOREVER, not just these past few years, everytime a Rep., gets in the White House, our lives change and not for the better. You are so greedy, you wouldn't help a person that was on fire and screaming. You might get your hands dirty. What a shame..... Can I move to another country Mommie............. please...................

Answer 10

Considering the cost of American health care, any President and Congress who "gives" "free" health care to all Americans should be impeached.