Healthcare reform
The Clinton health care plan
This program is also known as the health security act. Some of its detractors gave it the name "Hillarycare." This phenomenon is reminiscent to the recent "Obamacare" bill nicknamed after President Barrack Obama. The health security act was a healthcare reform package. It got proposed by the Clinton administration under the then President Bill Clinton. The first lady got closely associated with the chair of the task force. This panel got created in January 1993.
The creation process, however, appeared controversial. People became widely divided with one faction actively supporting the bill while another vehemently condemning it. For this reason, the process of building this task force attracted a lot of litigation. Many debates arose on the suitability of the law. Some people made small protests and demonstrations to voice their disapproval of the new bill.
The main agenda of this bill was to introduce universal healthcare, just like the bill proposed and enacted under President Obama. Under this law, employees would get mandated to provide healthcare insurance for employees (Clinton, 1992). They would have to undertake the process immediately on hiring workers. To the already existing employees, they would have to open worker insurance contracts on their behalf. Every other citizen would also have the responsibility to taking a health insurance cover and service the premiums (Zelman, 1994).
Opposition to the bill
Though some members of Congress supported the bill, it attracted massive opposition from various social, economic and political factions. The main opposing groups were the conservatives, the health insurance industry, and the libertarians. In fact, the industry embarked on publishing an advert through television. It got named “Hillary and Louise” the main aim was to rally national support against the proposed bill.
William crystal, one of the proposers, orchestrated plans for the bill's ultimate defeat. Some of the complaints he raised included too much bureaucracy. This bill had a lot of procedures that insurance applicants had to follow strictly. Another concern about the bill was that it restricted patient choice. Patients had to take insurance covers that had strict terms and conditions. Furthermore, they had no choice as to whether to take them or not.
The conservative Heritage Foundation also became opposed to this proposed law. It argued that the Clinton administration is inspiring top-down control and command systems of global budgets. They claimed that this policy would drive the country into deeper debts. The result of such debts would tell on the performance of the economy. Too much spending will also go to healthcare and other critical sectors of the economy get neglected (Skocpol, 1995).
The defeat
In August 1994, the majority leader George Mitchell brought forward a compromise proposal to the floor of the Senate. The proposal stated that it would delay the requirements of employees until 2020. However, an exemption to this policy were the small businesses. A further blow to the bill came when the Democrats experienced a shortage of senators behind the bill. Most of them had backed out and joined the opposition. A few weeks later, Mitchell announced the death of the compromise plan.
This situation meant that the bill would have to wait until the next Congress. Clinton got weakened politically. He had to rework his strategy. His support waned both within the two houses and among the public. The Republicans, on the other hand, got embolden and put more pressure on the government. They saw the situation as an opportunity to ramp up support for their party as they gained momentum for the next general election (Blendon, Brodie, & Benson, 1995).
References
Blendon, R. J., Brodie, M., & Benson, J. (1995). What happened to Americans' support for the Clinton health plan?. Health Affairs, 14(2), 7-23.
Clinton, B. (1992). The Clinton health care plan. New England Journal of Medicine, 327(11), 804-807.
Skocpol, T. (1995). The rise and resounding demise of the Clinton plan. Health Affairs, 14(1), 66.
Zelman, W. A. (1994). The rationale behind the Clinton health care reform plan. Health Affairs, 13(1), 9.
