The Disappearance of Hillary Clinton's Healthcare Platform

[eridani]

This article does not mention the public option, which is on Clinton's website, but never appears in her campaign speeches. Why is that?

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/03/30/disappearance-hillary-clintons-healthcare-platform

What would happen if the media lifted the curtain on Clinton's healthcare platform and introduced any level of scrutiny to her proposed improvements on the Affordable Care Act? They would find two categories of Clinton proposals: some that are so vague they're difficult to evaluate, and other more concrete plans that follow in the footsteps of one of Congress's most practiced healthcare incrementalists: Senator Bernie Sanders.

For example, one of Clinton's clearest incremental proposals is to repeal the Affordable Care Act's poorly named "cadillac tax" on health plans with high premiums. She announced this proposal on September 29, drawing the ire of White House spokespeople. The move, however, followed in the footsteps of a Senate bill to repeal the Cadillac tax introduced by Bernie Sanders and seven Democratic Senators just a few days previously on September 24. Clinton's position was correctly seen by reporters as necessary if she didn't want to lose labor union support to Sanders.

Many of Clinton's well-defined healthcare proposals are rolled into a package of prescription drug reforms, which she released on September 22, 2015. They bear a striking resemblance to the Sanders prescription drug plan announced on September 1, filed as legislation on September 10. Both would legalize importation of prescription drugs from Canada, where costs for identical drugs are much lower due to Canada's single-payer healthcare system. Sanders was a pioneer of importation, and in 1999 started driving busloads of American patients who couldn't afford breast cancer drugs across the Canadian border. Both candidates call for empowering Medicare to negotiate drug prices - even Donald Trump jumped on board in January. Both would ban "pay-for-delay" deals between brand-name and generic drug makers, and increase prescription drug rebates for Medicaid and/or Medicare.

Because Clinton's healthcare platform has received zero public scrutiny, she has had the luxury of floating other policy ideas in broad outlines, too vague to evaluate. Take the proposal to expand the use of Accountable Care Organizations. How? According to Clinton's December policy brief: "In the coming months, [Clinton] will provide full detail on her plans for delivery system reforms that drive down costs." With the primaries drawing to a close, no such details have been released. The same could be said of another proposal to "create a fallback process" to review insurance premium rate hikes in states that don't already review rates. There has been no explanation of how such a plan would work, or whether it would require new legislation.

[AgerolanAmerican]

1. Did you know that Hillary is a woman?

How wonderful is that?

[jeff47]

2. Any actual scrutiny would show that her plan can't pass.

Her plan relies on Congress changing the law. That would require the Republicans to decide to switch from 60+ votes to dismantle the ACA, to suddenly voting to strengthen it.

Not gonna happen.

Sanders's plan is based on getting disaffected voters back to the polls. If we can do that, we can pass his plan and a whole lot of "impossible" legislation.

Clinton's plan is based on magic pixie dust making the Republicans do what she wants, 'cause there's no plan to retake Congress.

[Scuba]

3. Note the language differences between Bernie and Hillary. Bernie talks about Americans needing ...

... healthcare while Hillary talks about Americans needing health coverage.









Then think about the large donations she's received from the health insurance industry.

Then vote for Bernie.

[eridani]

4. I am still astonished that the public option is on her webbsite--

--but she has never mentioned it even once while campaigning.