"Before it was ObamaCare, it was HillaryCare"...

[TeeYiYi]

That's at least the second time I've heard Hillary say this.

So, in addition to commandeering the "Progressive" moniker, is she now intentionally poaching President Obama's ACA legacy?

Inquiring minds...

TYY

[AtomicKitten]

1. Never made it out of committee. Zero votes including none from Democrats.

It was an epic failure.

[moriah]

9. Because people couldn't accept nationally what Arkansas accepted because they saw it work...

.... that a woman who hadn't been elected to anything could or should be a part of legislation.

In Arkansas, people respected Hillary and her capabilities. She was an excellent lawyer, and she did take time from her cases at the Rose Law Firm to do many tasks assigned to her by her husband, or just done on her own initiative, like HIPPY-USA.

She got an honorary degree from a Canadian university for her health plan, you know.

[AtomicKitten]

13. she failed big time

http://www.counterpunch.org/2007/11/12/why-hillary-s-health-care-plan-really-failed/

[moriah]

14. And if you don't think resentment from people for...

... an unelected person doing legislation -- plus the attacks that made everyone call it HillaryCare -- at least contributed to what wasn't a terrible plan (and damn close to what the ACA ended up being) falling, I wonder how old you are.

I remember an SNL skit that satirized some of the ads beautifully.

[MADem]

20. These bits are salient...

And newspapers and television failed to cut through the din and educate people, said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, dean of the Annenberg School at the University of Pennsylvania. Instead, they merely elevated public skepticism.

"Everything the press did appeared to engender cynicism," she said, citing a study that she and a colleague, Joseph N. Cappella, plan to present next Saturday to an American Political Science Association convention in New York. When the news emphasized controversy, she said, "That undermined the public sense that there was any agreement on what the problem is."

..............

Insiders say Mr. Magaziner and Mrs. Clinton reinforced each other's tendencies to seek idealistic solutions. They shared a perception that, as Mrs. Clinton said in May 1993, "too many people have made too much money" providing health care and insurance.....

That kind of throws a bucket of ice water on some of the accusations being thrown at Secretary Clinton's viewpoint towards this issue, too...

[MADem]

23. It's very odd--no one has a problem with a "special envoy" (if they're male and unrelated)

going off to try and broker a peace here or there, but if a POTUS uses his well-educated, well-briefed, federal-government-savvy spouse to perform an unpaid task for the good of the nation, some people will just get freaky.

I think a lot of it was sexism, on top of the Bubba-hate that was popular on the right at the time.

I doubt that if George W. Bush had assigned Jeb! to do some sort of federal oversight job (he would have been a better pick than "Brownie" certainly) , even on a temporary or emergency basis, no one on the right would have batted an eye. They would have said "Oh, good choice, he has executive experience, and since he's related, the POTUS can TRUST him..." or bullshit on those lines. IOKIYAR!!

Probably, if Porgie had put Jeb! in charge of anything--even arranging the mops in the White House broom closet--it would have done him a world of good (if he succeeded or even "fought the good fight&quot .
Might have even been worth a half dozen points in these early contests!!

I get the feeling that Jeb! will have plenty of time to use that brand new house that Poppy and Ma built for him up on Walker's Point this past year.

[moriah]

33. Well, Hillary was a VERY different FLOTUS than any ...

.... of her predecessors since Eleanor Roosevelt, and we have seen attacks against Michelle, another bright, well-educated, professional FLOTUS for her attempts to deal with childhood obesity.

I think sexism (and in Michelle's case, racism) still exists, of course, just *maybe* a little less now than in 1993. Still, Michelle has worked mostly out-of-sight vs on CSPAN, and on issues considered "appropriate" for First Ladies -- things that affected children and families. If she hadn't, I can only imagine how much worse it could be.

But Nancy just called in astrologers and reminded us to "just say no". Barbara pushed for childhood literacy. Health care reform? They didn't care about Hillary's brain, they wanted her cookie recipe.

[MADem]

40. Really--Michelle is a lawyer and she's probably grinding her teeth on occasion at being

constrained in her role...but she is operating under a double-whammy.

Even Clinton was shoved into a "nurturing" role--after all, isn't "Mommy" the one that everyone runs to when they have a sniffle or an ache or a boo-boo on the knee? So "health care" can be "reduced" to a "woman's thing" -- like "cooking for the family" and "paying attention to nutrition" and "making sure the kids get enough exercise and playtime." "Heavy " for any jurors who don't understand the significance of the "scare quotes!" (Sad that we have to say that nowadays...).

It had to drive them nuts. It's not a paying job, to boot, and you have very little private life, and are constantly followed, contrained, and your every action criticized .... but when you have two women like MO or HRC who are lawyers, who have worked full time, and who are, in essence, forced to take jobs that are beneath their intellectual and organizational abilities, it has to rankle...so the only thing they can do to make the job "more" is to try and widen the impact of their work to the greatest possible extent. HRC did that, and MO continues to do it--and with grace and humor, too.

And remember, they wanted Michelle's cookie recipe, too!!!

I have to wonder what Bill Clinton will offer as "his" recipe: 1) Go to store, 2) Go to cookie aisle, 3) Rummage around until you find something that appeals to you...grab that pack of Chips Ahoy! or Oreos, and head for the express checkout! LOL!!

[jillan]

21. But she has scars.

[flor-de-jasmim]

2. More accurately, Romneycare. Lol

[PoliticAverse]

11. If you are gonna go there it was "Heritage Foundation" care...

And their original 11-page plan can be found here:
http://thf_media.s3.amazonaws.com/1989/pdf/hl218.pdf

[liberal_at_heart]

22. How is it that Democrats ended up pushing a conservative health care plan?

And furthermore, how can they defend pushing a conservative health care plan? And when are Democrats going to start supporting single payer?

[kennetha]

19. Romneycare

on which Obamacare is modeled was actually the Republican alternative to the Clinton's plan. At first, before the insurance industry went to work on Hilarycare, the Republicans thought they needed an alternative. They came up with something very much like Obamacare arguing it was far less bureaucratic. It is a measure of how far right they became that Obamacare was too much for them.

[MADem]

25. No, not that, either, and this is how the Republicans went after "Hillarycare."

Anyone who doesn't think this kind of assault will be pushed, "big time" if anyone tries a "revolutionary" change hasn't seen it happen before.

I urge everyone who hasn't heard of "Harry and Louise" to watch the above commercials.

The right wing used a combination of faux concern and fake agreement to shit all over what POTUS Clinton was trying to do.

"There will be rationing...waiting in lines....you won't be able to pick your own doctor or hospital...a GIANT SOCIAL EXPERIMENT...."

[Rilgin]

32. The Reason it failed was because it was a bad bill institutionalizing the big insurance companies

It got no support from the left or right and got no votes. It was not even Hillary's fault and her contribution was a political act.

Before the election, Bill had already selected the health care plan he was going to enact which was based on the conservative democratic think tank in Aspen and was extremely similar to an initiative that LOST in California.

Bill rejected single payer or even a government option and went with a mandate for everyone to buy insurance in a managed care method. The plan called for everyone not in a big company to be part of a group for which Government would negotiate with Insurers to provide insurance at group rates just like the businesses negotiate it. Then the plans would go to the public to choose but you would have to choose one --- MANDATED PRIVATE INSURANCE.

Democrats didnt really like it because it was not headed to single payer (which polls showed was viewed extremely favorably at the time) and Republicans didnt like any government role. Noone really liked it. The advertisements you are showing were not Republican ads, they were ads from the small insurance lobbying groups. These smaller insurers would be put out of business because they would not have the clout or resources to actually get in the government administered group. The big insurers did not lobby or put out ads against the clinton plan because health care was a big issue. Everyone thought reform was coming and this plan institutionalized them -- kind of like the ACA,

After he was elected, Hillary was appointed to pretend to talk to everyone in the health care industry and then sell the plan that was run on by Bill during the election. It was Kabuki Theatre by The Bill Clinton administration. The selling of it might have been Hillary but that failed.

So understand that her previous experience really is not a plus. It is not a big negative, it was the plan her husband ran on but it was not something she accomplished.

[moriah]

34. Then tell me why we have mandated, managed care now?

If Obama was so much better than Hillary, if it getting passed in 2009 vs 1993 was because the 1993 legislation was too conservative or giving away to much to big insurance, then why didn't he get single payer or the Public Option?

As for ads, if you're younger than 35 you may not remember them well. If you're an 18-year old, you CANNOT remember them.

Just one of a series.

[Rilgin]

42. Ugh

Last edited Fri Feb 5, 2016, 04:26 PM - Edit history (1)

I am a great deal older than 35 and know quite a bit about the original California Initiative that failed and the Clinton plan.

There were candidates advocating for single payer and the expansion of Medicare when Bill Clinton ran for president -- JUST NOT BILL CLINTON. His plan was a triangulated plan to have government act and negotiate for individuals like big corporate human resource officers do for big companies. Intellectually it worked as a triangulated system that tried to modestly do something while trying not to offend either conservatives or liberals.

The reason we did not get single payer then is it was taken off the table by Bill's administration because even then Bill -- "the era of Big Government is Over" -- Clinton was a conservative pro corporate democrat. This was done during the campaign. After being elected Hillary went on a listening tour but coincidentally came back with the same plan as that supported by Bill in the campaign. Again, I do not blame Hillary for this. I think it was her job to drum up support for Bill's plan and to start by pretending it was not decided on at the time.

There is no doubt that it would have been a huge fight with the Republicans and corporate democrats if they tried to fight for single payer but they did not instead trying for a complex system that had already failed to mobilize voters in California before and which had luke warm support from the democratic party base.

And again, the ads were NOT republican ads, they were from the small insurance lobbying group who would be put out of business by the Clinton's health reform package. This group was called the Health Insurance Association of America (HIAA). The major insurance companies would, like the ACA, be institutionalized so they did not fight what every person thought was coming.

However, it failed because it was a complex plan that really had no base support. It was more triangulation between right and left and like many such attempts it was just left road kill in the middle of the road.

Clinton tried to sell it to the right by pointing out that it was not government insurance but that didnt work and the left, like with the ACA, did not want the insurance companies. Support for Health Reform was high, support for this plan was tepid and it failed.

Comparing Obama and Clinton was not my intention. The basic dynamics are similar. Obama ran against a Mandate and based his plan on a Public Option when he was a candidate because that is the preferred method of the democratic liberal base. Hillary ran on a mandate. When in office, he supported a mandate and settled for no public option even though the House (and Nancy Pelosi) actually passed a version of the ACA with a public option a year before the public option was removed during the reconciliation process of that bill. The vote was a teeth pull of the liberal legislatures and promises that it would be improved and arguments that it would be a path to a liberal bill.

Personally I think Obama should have fought for a medicare expansion to single payer. The argument made is that it was impossible and the ACA is better than the old system and lets not make the perfect be the enemy of the good. On this arguments side is the fact that the Republicans went off the deep end and its possible he could not have got anything that would be truly loved by the democratic base through congress. This is possible although to me its just part of the fight. Now we have an imperfect system that will be hard to change rather than a more imperfect system that demanded change. My thoughts are that you propose it and, sell it to the people and point to the impediments. You lose the first vote and put it through again and again till you win. However, that is not what Obama did. He went with what was basically the Republican alternative to Medicare for all proposed by Nixon and the Heritage foundation.

Anyhow, perhaps you will learn something rather than try to assert that I am under 35. I am over 55 and know quite a lot about this issue and this plan. Perhaps rather than snark you will take the time to learn yourself.

[moriah]

43. The assumption regarding age was because of this:

The big insurers did not lobby or put out ads against the clinton plan because health care was a big issue. Everyone thought reform was coming and this plan institutionalized them -- kind of like the ACA,

... when the ad series was expressly paid for by big insurers.

It's forgivable to say such things when you're too young to remember.

[Rilgin]

45. Read up some more on the Lobbying Group

First, the claim above was it was a Republican Ad. Second you are wrong in your link about who produced it. It was not produced by AHIP.

It was an ad produced by an earlier nsurance lobbying group: Health Insurance Association of America (HIAA). Your cite is to this group America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP).

In some ways the HIAA is a successor to the HIAA but this was after substantial change. HIAA was originally a mixture of big insurers and smaller insurers. The advent of managed care, the need for reform, public sentiment and the Clinton plan and caused many of the big insurers to leave the HIAA. Ultimately the the interests of the big and small insurers were not the same at that point.

Aetna, CIGNA, Horizon all left the HIAA in the early 1990's because of the different goals of big and small insurers. They were not part of the HIAA when it produced that ad because in many ways they might benefit from the Clinton Plan. Again a link.

https://books.google.com/books?id=sob01D9tJ68C&pg=PA136&lpg=PA136&dq=cigna+and+the+hiaa&source=bl&ots=NWF9nv19mV&sig=HpI1ZLd6QYxnDxlV66oLeJtVz6w&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjCl8qC1uHKAhUU7mMKHSgdCTgQ6AEINzAE#v=onepage&q=cigna%20and%20the%20hiaa&f=false

15 Seconds on google produced this article showing the split and the fact that the big insurers were mixed on the Clinton plan. They were not for it but not really against it. The small insurers would be put out of business.

http://articles.latimes.com/1992-12-07/news/mn-1224_1_health-insurance/3

[moriah]

48. HIAA was run by....

... an Ohio Republican, who proudly spoke about this being just the worst plan on Earth.

If the ads from the HIAA sound to you like they came from a progressive organization, could you describe the progressive points?

But here was the best one ...

[Rilgin]

49. Reading Comprehension is your friend.

The first poster said this ad was run by Republicans. It was not. It was run by an industry group. The lobbying group for the small insurance companies.

You then said it was the large insurance companies. It was not. It was the group for the small insurance companies who correctly deemed that the bill would put most of the small insurance companies out of business. The large insurance companies (I assume you have heard of Cigna) had pulled out of that group by then. The ad was not paid for by big insurers which was your claim.

I corrected it and you pointed out that the head of the business lobbying group was a Republican. I am sure you are accurate but who made the claim that these particular ads were Progressive attacks on the Clinton Health Care Plan. NOONE.

Again, there is a difference between the Republican Party and industry lobbying groups regardless of the affiliation of the president of a group. The HIAA was not an arm of the Republican Party it was actually an industry lobbying group. Kind of like the Nurses Association or the American Bar Association etc etc etc. The reason that particular lobbying group was against the Clinton Plan was it was bad for its business members. The reason the larger insurers were not participants was it was not all that bad for the larger insurance companies kind of like the ACA where the large insurance companies are obtaining record profits.

So again, you might read back and learn some history. Right and left were not that enamored with the Aspen Plan for Health Care reform as adopted by the Clinton Administration. Other groups had their own rationales for being for or against the Plan including this particular Lobbying Group which ran misleading but effective ads against the plan. The problem for the Clintons was there was not that much enthusiastic support from the Left to counter the resistance to the Plan including the HIAA.

[moriah]

50. And I assume that you've...

... heard of Aetna? Maybe Aetna, Cigna, and others had split ways, but it was not because they were "big", but that they were managed care companies in a time when most, big or small, were fee-for-service.

It's hard to understand how you can't see that these people represented Big Insurance, that they were mostly Republicans and working closely with Republicans and Rush Limbaugh.

Not sure if you were much of a Robin Cook fan, but he wrote very scathingly of managed care many times during those years. But because it works, that's why the managed care model became more mainstream. Yes, managed care companies didn't fight as hard, but that doesn't mean that the insurance industry at large and Republicans didn't work together to defeat universal health care. Their "plan" was simply what became HIPAA.

[Rilgin]

54. I give up

YES REPUBLICANS WERE AGAINST THE CLINTON PLAN. I HAVE SAID IT A FEW TIMES. It also had no support from the left.

Various lobbying groups lined up on various sides of the issue as THEY ALWAYS DO because they are business lobbying groups. The business lobbying groups are NOT the same thing as the Republican party.

And last, the BIG insurance companies were kind of ambivalent about the Clinton Plan because like the ACA it was based on everyone buying private insurance. Were there some things they didnt like. Sure. Would they rather be totally unregulated. Sure. However, there was a split between the Big insurers and the smaller insurance companies.

You keep arguing stuff that is factually incorrect. Of course I heard of Aetna. Aetna, like Cigna, left the HIAA (the group that produced the Harry and Louise Ad) in the early 1990s because it was a BIG insurance company. Do you understand that right now we are not discussing progressive, liberal, conservative, democratic or republican policies. It is about facts. Aetna, Cigna and other large insurers were not part of the industry group when it produced Harry and Louise.

The reason the HIAA opposed the Clinton Health Care bill was because it was an industry group for insurance companies, principally small ones after the big ones left. These particular companies would be adversely affected by the Clinton Plan.

Getting rid of insurance companies is fine with me. It is my favored plan. Just understand that is not what the Clinton Plan did and is not what the ACA did. In both cases, the big insurers played a middle game. They would be happy if the bills failed and would win if they passed. That was what caused the left to be ambivalent about the bill in the 1990s. Obama managed to get the Democratic party congressmen to vote for a mandate in the ACA but it still does not please the left who wanted but gave up on single payer but at least wanted the public option. This is not very difficult to understand.

[Beartracks]

55. +1000 for the Bill & Hill video

Never seen that before!





==========================

[moriah]

56. I love SNL.

It really was a great little skit.

[merrily]

52. Romney copied from Billarycare. Billarycare came from the Heritage Foundation, via

a conservative group in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, whose members had been horrified by Nixoncare's employer mandate and went with an individual mandate instead.

Yes, the individual mandate came from members of a small group of conservative asshats in Jackson Hole WY who were considerably to the right of Nixon.

[lob1]

3. And Obama was there when she decided to get Bin Laden.

[grasswire]

4. yes, I noticed that

Amusing, yet twisted.

She got Iran to the negotiating table, too.

[MADem]

5. She's right I remember everyone making fun of her when she first tried as FLOTUS.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinton_health_care_plan_of_1993

The Clinton health care plan, known officially as the Health Security Act and unofficially nicknamed "Hillarycare" (after First Lady Hillary Clinton) by its detractors, was a 1993 healthcare reform package proposed by the administration of President Bill Clinton and closely associated with the chair of the task force devising the plan, First Lady of the United States Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Now--are you going to self-delete, or double down?

[moriah]

8. This is why I like you. :) nt

[MADem]

17. I like to be fair! nt

[TeeYiYi]

10. I appreciate your answer...

...and remember Hillary Clinton's efforts to establish universal healthcare in America during the 90s.

I just get uncomfortable with memes like "Before it was ObamaCare, it was HillaryCare." It feels like she's trying, through sound bites, to take credit for something that Obama succeeded, through blood, sweat and tears, in establishing during his presidency.

She comes off sounding combative and dismissive.

I just think there are more humble ways of taking credit for her efforts.

TYY

[MADem]

15. She's not 'trying' though--she is telling the truth. She had her ASS handed to her.

And I'll tell you something--I saw plenty of it. It was the early days of CNN International and CNBC and Sky News, a dish cost a fortune, but hey--it was worth it-- and I wasn't even living in USA--but I saw the GOP fling shit at her constantly, even from afar, and I must say, it annoyed me.

That's why I have to wonder how old people are who don't remember this--I saw it from thousands of miles away, I know full well that people in USA got an even heavier dose of this kind of mockery and insult. Of course, someone who is twenty years old today would have not even been born when she was enduring all that snark and shit, way back when.

There's no "humble" involved--it's simple history. It's absolute fact. She lived it. She took the slings and arrows, and they tried to rip her a new one, every single day. They were OBSESSIVE in their cruelty towards her--kind of like a segment of DU is, these days.

And they WERE calling it that as a matter of routine--with a snide, shitty sneer in their voices, too.

[TeeYiYi]

24. I just hope...

...that she'll stop repeating that exact soundbite, verbatim. It feels disingenuous and dismissive.

Yes, she "lived it" and she should expound on her contributions to the fight for universal health care and the eventual passing of the Affordable Care Act, but I sincerely hope I don't hear "Before it was ObamaCare, it was HillaryCare" again. Not without proper attribution.

TYY

[MADem]

26. Have a look at the "Harry and Louise" montage of ads, above.

Watch how effectively the right wing decimated the plan. Watch the little lies, the half truths, the faux concerns...all done with the eager assistance and encouragement of the media.

If you think this won't happen again, I can guarantee you that it will--and the effort will be much more sophisticated. Harry and Louise will be hipsters who will call the President a piece of shit, and maybe even a purveyor of shopworn conveyances. They'll use the Young Libertarian slant, if that's what it'll take--hookah on the shelf, knit cap on the head--"Hey, dude, my meds aren't covered...and look at this co-pay! Did you know I had to PAY for this cast after I destroyed my knee in that skateboarding accident? I thought all this shit was supposed ta be free, man!!!!"

But--in the unlikely circumstance that Sanders gets elected-- I guarantee you the Congress will not pass his health care dream. It won't ever get out of committee. And then, DU will turn, snarling, and give him the POSUCS treatment, just like Obama got for not delivering HOPE in the quantities expected or CHANGE in the sufficiency anticipated.

It's a shame. But it is what would happen.

[TeeYiYi]

27. Thanks for that, MADem...

TYY

[MADem]

29. OMG, I love that GIF! Ha ha!!! nt

[moriah]

36. Spot on.

I really do like Bernie, though I didn't much care for him suggesting a 50 state strategy when he did a lot to damage his own state's Democratic party in the past, or forgetting that a "50-state strategy" hss to keep in mind that Massachusetts and Arkansas (my state) are radically different.

I'm so sad that just since Obama was elected, the six people we sent to Washington have went from two Democratic senators and three Democratic Representatives to all six being Republicans. I had Boozman as my representative while Blanche was Senator, and he always answered my letters about women's health care by saying that, as an ophthalmologist, he knew more about my body than the AMA or my own doctor.

But because all Obama could get was the ACA, and it wasn't needed for all the Democratic Senators to vote yea to pass, Pryor and Lincoln voted like their constituents overwhelmingly said they wanted to try to hold on to their seats (so did one other Dem from a conservative state). People sent out-of-state funds to primary her, that we really needed in the General to defeat Boozman. People said they'd NEVER vote for Blanche, and the Republicans latched onto it.

I wasn't extremely invested in a Clinton nomination at first, but I've made my choice now. I do hope that if Bernie keeps it going until the Convention, it will keep interest in the election campaign high, which will increase voter turnout whoever wins. But he is going to have to rally around the nominee if it isn't him, just as Hillary rallied around Obama... will he? I think so.

[MrWendel]

6. Search...

google. You'll find the answer.

[Purveyor]

7. I hear she's going to take credit for the moon landing next...

[MADem]

16. You'd do well to google, or even just read the thread...because your post speaks ill of you. nt

[bigdarryl]

12. You obviously must be a youngster Clinton is right it was called Hillary care see for yourself

[kennetha]

18. born yesterday?

Jeepers!

[elana i am]

28. romneycare

technically obama stole it from romney.

but yeah, clinton is trying to take credit for something that was essentially a repug idea. i get it that obama tried hard and that he had the misfortune of basically being a lame duck from the day he took office, but the ACA is underwhelming and insufficient. not a good idea to try and usurp that "legacy".

[MADem]

30. And Romney stole it from Clinton.

Commonwealth Care (aka Romneycare) was based on the work that Hillary Clinton's committee did. The "Connector" piece was from the Heritage Foundation. This entire article is instructive.

Jonathan Cohn has an article in the latest New Republic titled “Hillary Was Right” [$] that helpfully explains similarities between HillaryCare and RomneyCare:

In Washington, at least, praising HillaryCare will get you laughed off the talk shows. But…if you look closely at the proposals experts and officials are tossing around, you may start to recognize some familiar elements…They also envision, as did HillaryCare, a government role in making sure affordable, high-quality plans are made available — typically, by creating (again, like HillaryCare) some sort of purchasing cooperative through which some, if not all, of the population would buy their coverage. That’s true of the plan former Senator John Edwards proposed as part of his presidential campaign a few months ago. It’s true of the plan Senator Ron Wyden introduced in Congress back in December. It’s even true of the plan former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney signed into law before leaving office last year — even though Romney has made mocking HillaryCare a staple of his campaign rhetoric as he seeks the Republican presidential nomination.

Cohn does not think the similarities to HillaryCare are a liability. As the title of the article suggests, he is trying to pat Sen. Hillary Clinton (D., N.Y.) on the back for the reform plan she put forward in 1993 and defended until its death in 1994. The fact that a prominent Republican such as Mitt Romney has now embraced Hillary-style government planning strikes Cohn as confirmation that Sen. Clinton was on the right track. By bundling the tax dollars of six million Massachusetts residents, Mitt Romney may have made the largest contribution yet to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

Cohn is not even referring to some obscure aspect of RomneyCare that was forced down Romney’s throat by a left-wing legislature — which is how Romney’s defenders have tried to explain away parts of the plan, such as the individual mandate, that are unpopular with conservatives. According to Cohn, the aspect of RomneyCare that most resembles HillaryCare is its very centerpiece, which Romney borrowed from the conservative Heritage Foundation: the health insurance “Connector.”....

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/221161/what-mitt-and-hillary-have-common-michael-f-cannon

[jfern]

31. She wasn't too successful on the getting things done there

[MADem]

39. Well, actually---she was.

Her husband's crew determined the legislative agenda for what was supposed to be his health care plan, and Robert Byrd refused to fast track the effort, so by the time it got to the legislature, he'd been Harry-and-Louise'd. But out of those ashes HRC managed to get health care for eight million children.

SHE didn't go away empty handed. Even if her husband did....

The program came in response to the failure of comprehensive health care reform proposed in 1993 by President Bill Clinton. As a compromise, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton proposed extending health coverage to children and the bill passed. At its creation in 1997, CHIP was the largest expansion of taxpayer-funded health insurance coverage for children in the U.S. since[citation needed] Lyndon Johnson established Medicaid in 1965.[3] The statutory authority for CHIP is under title XXI of the Social Security Act. It was sponsored by Senator Edward Kennedy in a partnership with Senator Orrin Hatch[4] with support coming from First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton during the Clinton administration.[5][6][7]

[UglyGreed]

35. I know I heard

of Romneycare before Obamacare but never heard of Hillarycare. I might of missed it though and I'm not all are the same.

[moriah]

37. You might not be old enough.

Not trying to be offensive. I was only 13, but I remember the ads and the name, because my family watched a lot of CSPAN and news.

[UglyGreed]

38. Thank you for the

reply. I was old enough but dealing with health problems I did not paying attention to politics at the time. I regret that I did not get involved when I was younger and now I'm teaching my children to be a part of the process. I hope they learn from my mistakes so to avoid their own.

[Ferd Berfel]

41. Before it was Obamacare - it was Heritage Foundation Care and Romneycare

IT was and remains the Republican plan for healthcare and they would have voted for it if it was not a Dem (especially a Clinton or Obama) pushing for it.

[liberal_at_heart]

44. That's probably why we have never seen a replacement idea for their attempts to repeal it.

It was and is a Republican healthcare plan. They only throw a fit about it to excite their base.

[Ferd Berfel]

47. yep

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

46. Curious thing to brag about because Obama always gave credit to Republicans

One of those, "when it was your idea, you were for it, but now that I'm for it, you're against it" things.

[notadmblnd]

51. Didn't Dems used to tout it as the Republican plan?

[merrily]

53. Obamacare Romneycare Billarycare HeritageFoundationCare JacksonHolecare Nixoncare

That is the full genealogy chart. I've read that before Nixon was Truman, but I have not researched across that yet.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1251&pid=1155097

See also

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hillary-clinton-obamacare_us_5602b956e4b00310edf954cd

and

In September 2007, former Clinton Administration senior health policy advisor Paul Starr published an article named "The Hillarycare Mythology",[31] where he wrote that Bill Clinton, not Hillary Clinton, was the driving force behind the plan at all stages of its origination and development; that the task force headed by Hillary Clinton quickly became useless and was not the primary force behind formulating the proposed policy; and that "Not only did the fiction of Hillary's personal responsibility for the health plan fail to protect the president at the time, it has also now come back to haunt her in her own quest for the presidency."[31]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinton_health_care_plan_of_1993