The big one.. Clinton on Universal Health Care?

Question

Clinton supports incremental reforms that would provide universal access to health care by subsidizing insurance premiums for those unable to pay, but not Single-payer health care.

In a speech to Harvard Medical School on June 4, 1998, Clinton outlined general support for universal affordable health care for Americans. "There are 41 million people without health insurance. Who will take care of these people in the future? How will we pay for their care? How will we pay for the extra costs that come when someone is not treated for a chronic disease or turned away from the emergency room? The job of health care reform cannot be done when access to care depends on skin color or the neighborhood they live in or the amount of money in their wallet. Let’s continue to work toward universal affordable, quality health care [6]."

Clinton later said that health care coverage improvements need to be made incrementally over time, in contrast to the more ambitious, wide-ranging plan that failed in 1993-1994. Clinton has recently collaborated with former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich on joint proposals for incremental health care improvements that would involve both private insurers and government. [7] [8]

But Clinton has always said that a Canadian-style Single-payer health care plan was politically unrealistic, from the 1993 Clinton health care plan (Dead on arrival: why Washington's power elites won't consider single payer health reform, Washington Monthly, Sept. 1993, Tom Hamburger) to the present

it's a series of responses aviator.. the question is laid out in my first post of the series.. what do you think basically? just looking for intelligent debate rather than mud slinging.. that's all :)

Answer 1

You don't actually have a question, do you? It is fun to see that people don't know the difference between universal health care and socialized medicine.

Answer 2

Universal Health care will be an Albatross that will forever be dragging down our economy. People with no financial responsibility for paying their doctors bills will in fact see the doctor more often then those who have to shell out the fees. Instead of putting a Socialistic band aid on this festering wound we should address the real issue. Why are Americans going to the doctors. Are we so unhealthy? We go to the doctors now more then ever in our history. Wasn't inoculations and education about illness suposed to make us all healthier? The poor are covered in this country. I challenge any one to go out to your neighborhood and find a poor child who is not already covered by Medicaid! Who are these millions or of Americans who are not insured? The homeless?

Answer 3

She ABSOLUTELY WILL push for a socialized healthcare system.

Why would we want a system that mimics Canada and most of Europe...where it takes six months to get a cat scan. If we had such a system, my sister who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer would have had to wait another six months to confirm the presence of this aggressive form of the disease and drastically reduced her chances for a positive recovery. People travel to the US for our healthcare because it is the best in the world. We can implement a system to cover the 14% of the US without health insurance without sacrificing our best-in-class healthcare. Why throw the baby out with the bathwater?!?!

Plus, if anyone thinks that social security is sucking the money out of a poorly run government system, just wait until socialized healthcare is up and running. Why would anyone want the government to tell doctors and hospitals how to do anything?

Answer 4

THe way to solve Health Care Coverage Problems is to reduce the regulations they have to follow.

The next item to help reduce costs is to secure the borders and make it very difficult for the illegals to live here. If you want a job, you have to be legal. If you want a driver's license, you have to be legal. Change the tax code to the fair tax and the illegal invaders cannot afford to live here and will have to go home to their legal residency. Mexico doesn't put up with illegals, why should we.

Answer 5

""There are 41 million people without health insurance. Who will take care of these people in the future?"

What Clinton fails to mention, is that every state has medical assistance programs for low-income families and children.

Of that 41 million she talks about, 85% of them make between 50K and 90K per year, and can afford health insurance, but choose to keep they money instead, banking on themselves not getting sick or hurt.

It's their choice to make.

Answer 6

41,000,000 people who choose not to incur the expense of carrying health insurance.

And why should I pay - through my taxes - for people who choose to live unhealthy lives? Why should I pay - through my taxes - for people who engage in risky behavior resulting in disease or injury?

Every penny that goes into taxes to pay for natl health care:
1. is money AWAY from my kids (funny how Hillary's "village" doesn't include middle class families);
2. simply PROTECTS the nest eggs of the elderly (read: the inheritance for baby boomers), who want the GOVERNMENT to pick up the costs of their health care, so that they can pass their estates on to their kids.

Screw that! Health care should be available ONLY for the poor, and if that means people need to SPEND DOWN their money on their own health care, well - that's WHY they saved it UP in the first place.

Answer 7

I'm fine about that as long as it's ONLY for TRUE american citizens as we can't take care of Mr and Mrs. Illegal Lopez and their 6 children and more on the way.

If we can ensure it only for those who are true Americans I'd rather that be taken out of my taxes than funding ridiculous wars that ensure future profits for oil companies.

Answer 8

Clinton's support of Socialized medicine is reason enough for her to NEVER receive my vote.