Hillary says mandatory employment health care likely (not single payer)

[papau]

While she notes in comments later on ABC that Medicare is single payer and that people in general are very happy with the system - she suggests employment based insurance company coverage with insurance company profits is the most likely way - I can't tell if this is her preference - or just her evaluation of how many in Congress will vote to keep insurance company profits/CEO Salaries at the current levels or higher. But it is very discouraging. I need to go to work and not think about how upsetting this is.


http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=2981027&page=2

Sen. Hillary Clinton Answers Iowans; Questions
GMA Headlines


(Page 2 of 3)
<snip>
Steve Eckstat: Sen. Clinton, I was part of your 1993 Health Care Task Force. Obviously we weren't very successful at that time, so as president would you try to create a plan for universal health coverage again?

Clinton: I certainly would. It's one of the reasons I'm running for president. … I think we're in a better position to do that today than we were in '93 or '94. … It's hard to ignore the fact that nearly 47 million people don't have insurance. But also because the people who have insurance find that insurance companies deny what you need.

It's really hard for small businesses to compete in the economy … if they have to compete with the cost of health care.

We spend more money than anyone in the world by a very big number. … For all those reasons I believe the American people will make this an issue in the campaign. … I'm very excited about this, and I know that we can do this.

Many of the features that any of our health-care plans will have are going to be the same because there are only a couple ways that we can get to universal health coverage. … We can build on the current employment situation. … The other big way of doing it … is to move towards a system that would have Medicare for everybody. … A kind of single-payer system.

I think we have to have a uniquely American solution to health care because we're a different kind of country than anybody else.

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I think we will move toward requiring employers to participate the way Massachusetts does or the way California is considering. … And if you don't insure your employees you're going to have to pay some kind of per-employee amount so that everybody can be given insurance.
==================================================================================

During this campaign I want the ideas that people have. I want to hear from you that have different perspectives about what can work.

We don't have informational technology in health care the way we need to. … I'm fighting to get electronic medical records for every American. The reason is it'll save money, time, avoid duplication.

We're going to have universal health care when I'm president. There's no doubt about that. We're going to get it done.

Kathy Byars: Why do members of Congress get the Mercedes of insurance plans and pension plans while many of their constituents are just trying to pay for the basic necessities?

Clinton: I believe that one of the ways we can get health care for everyone is to open up the federal plan that's available to members of Congress … to everybody. That would be one way that we could say to you that you have the same right as anybody in Congress

I think it is past time for the Congress to do for everybody else what we do for ourselves.

I believe we can no longer continue with Cadillac policies for people in Congress unless we give other people in America the same policies. <snip>

[Deep13]

1. ****bzzzzt!**** I'm sorry, the answer we were looking for is...

...universal, single-payer health care. How much did you wager? Oooo!

[wakeme2008]

2. What about people that do not work.... Hillary....

She can not open her mouth without her Repugs roots coming out...

[Deep13]

3. Duh! And what does health care have to do with employment anyway?

Can't imagine employers will want this additional burden either.

[NJCher]

4. Oh, I agree with this statement of Hillary's

I think we have to have a uniquely American solution to health care because we're a different kind of country than anybody else.


Yessiree, Jim-Bob, we're the only country whose government caters almost exclusively to corporations and whose elected representatives refuse--yes, refuse--to take our tax dollars and do anything for its own people--the people who are paying.

We're unique, oh yes, because we have an out-of-control right wing and an opposition party that can't seem to do diddley to hold it back.

Unique.



Cher

[antigop]

6. What you said n/t

[Totally Committed]

8. Bingo!

MANDATORY EMPLOYMENT HEALTHCARE -- brought to you by the same group who brought us MANDATORY EMPLOYMENT WELFARE (and we know how well that's worked out for the poor of this country!)

The DLC's single-minded war on the little guy is disgusting.

TC

[kenny blankenship]

9. We're different in health because we're different people

We have nothing in common with the other nations of the world genetically speaking. So it's not surprising that what works for the rest of the developed world, single payer health care, just would not, could not work for us; and it's likewise unsurprising that what doesn't work for us (employer based health insurance) nor for anyone else in the world, is the best possible solution in our case.

[Dr.Phool]

5. DLC. Protect corporate profits. Screw constituents healthcare.

Even though single payer is the most efficient, least costly, and most effective way to cover the entire population, they can't mess with their contributors profits.

[OhioChick]

7. You nailed it. n/t

[Javaman]

10. She may raise a lot of money but she keeps shooting holes in her own boat...

each day and in every way, she gives me a new reason not to vote for her.

She was all fire and brimstone in the 1990's about getting national health care, now she's for it only if the corps still make out like a bandit from it.

sigh.

perhaps she was always this way and I am just realizing that now, or she was once normal and had a brain replacement, because each time I hear her, she sounds more and more repuke light.

I'm really sick of having a right wing nut, then offered a right wing light.

How about a centrist or a left winger? that's a radical thought, huh?

sigh.

more of the same, only a different paint job.

[NCarolinawoman]

11. And what about the self-employed, like myself?!!! n/t

The rates are unbelievable, and don't dare have any pre-existing illness---insurance companies don't like that! Don't even dare tell them you've ever had a migraine headache--you will be penalized.

[Vinca]

12. And whatever you do . . . don't continue to age.

They only want the young and healthy and will price anyone older or with any medical condition out of the market.