Pirate's Cove

Sigh. It has to be done

For months, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton has promised a plan to bring health care to every American. She was to make good on that pledge Monday, unveiling a sweeping proposal requiring everyone to carry health insurance and offering federal subsidies to help reduce the cost of coverage.

With a price tag of about $110 billion per year, Clinton’s "American Health Choices Plan" represents her first major effort to achieve universal health coverage since 1994, when the plan she authored during her husband’s first term collapsed.

Anyone else get the sense that the AP is rather annoyed that it was so long in coming? The tone really doesn’t get much better throughout the article. But, I am sure they will like this bit of freedom totalitarianism

The centerpiece of Clinton’s plan is the so-called "individual mandate," requiring everyone to have health insurance — just as most states require drivers to purchase auto insurance. Rival John Edwards has also offered a plan that includes an individual mandate, while the proposal outlined by Barack Obama does not.

There is a big difference: if you have a car, yes, you must have car insurance. If you have no car, you do not have to pay for it, or subsidize crappdaddy "no one else will insure me" drivers. With ShillaryCare, you MUST be insured, whether you want to pay or not. If you can afford it, you will be required to pay. If you can’t afford, she will stick it to everyone else, and you know that raising the taxes on those making $250,000 a year will not cover everything.

"It puts the consumer in the driver’s seat by offering more choices and lowering costs," Neera Tanden, Clinton’s top policy adviser, told The Associated Press. "If you like the plan you have, you keep it. If you’re one of tens of millions of Americans without coverage or don’t like the coverage you have, you will have a choice of plans to pick from and you’ll get tax credits to help pay for it."

Now, if only the part about choices would be true. You know she will not relax the federal regulations regarding HMO’s, so people will not be able to customize their plan, and, rather then hunting all around for weeks, they will simply stick with what their company gives them, or take what the government offers. And, companies will surely not pay for employees to go outside the company to get the insurance. Tax credits means "welfare."

Clinton’s plan builds on the existing employer-based system of coverage. People who receive insurance through the workplace could continue to do so; businesses, in turn, would be required to offer insurance to employees, or contribute to a government-run pool that would help pay for those not covered. Clinton would also offer a tax subsidy to small businesses to help them afford the cost of providing coverage to their workers.

I guess business’ would be required in Hillary’s socialist plan.

Clinton is also expected to stress several cost-saving measures to help pay for universal coverage. She’s already recommended several such proposals, such computerized medical record-keeping and a reduction in federal overpayments to hospitals and health maintenance organizations. She would also promote wellness and disease prevention as a way to reduce costs.

How about limitations on frivilous lawsuits and judgements, as well as relaxed rules for medicine development? I am surprised she missed a chance to smack around Edwards with this issue.

While Clinton is expected to lay out a concrete vision for health care reform, she will probably steer clear of delving too deeply into policy specifics, at least for now.

Looks like the AP needs a Rolaids. Expect to only see substance and details if she is elected, and not until.

Update: My Little Silk Pony was apparently a bit jealous of all the attention Shillary was going to get

"To show Congress just how serious I am, on the first day of my administration, I will submit legislation that ends health care coverage for the president, all members of Congress, and all senior political appointees in both branches of government on July 20th, 2009 – unless we have passed universal health care reform," Edwards said in a speech to the Laborers Leadership Convention.

Obviously, Silky really wasn’t paying attention during his 1 term as a Senator. No wonder he was called Senator Gone.

More: Will ShillaryCare cover illegal aliens? Well, um, you see, we’ll have to call you back.