Clinton Launches Health Care Plan

UPDATE II: Listening to the speech right now, Clinton talked about “lessons learned” and she’s illustrating that fact in her speech.
American Health Care Choices Plan
Slick Mitt & Rudy prove their ignorance.

Clinton unveils her health care plan today, which I’ll
report on as soon as the speech is done, which is just now beginning.

Known as an “individual mandate,” it has been proposed by two Republican governors, Arnold Schwarzenegger in California and former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts. It is being tried in Massachusetts and considered in at least six other states. It is also an important feature of a health-care-overhaul bill sponsored by Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon. “The individual mandate is central, in my view, to universal coverage,” Sen. Wyden said in an interview. Mrs. Clinton’s plan, set to be unveiled at an Iowa hospital this morning, also is expected to include subsidies for lower-income Americans who can’t afford premiums and new options for buying coverage. She plans to propose changes that would bar insurance companies from “cherry-picking” healthy people and refusing to cover the sick, and from charging more to people with pre-existing conditions. Overall, her plan to cover the 47 million people without insurance builds on the existing U.S. system, a mix of public and private coverage. That is a contrast to her effort in the first two years of her husband’s presidency, which would have more fundamentally remade the health-care system. It is expected to require that large employers cover their workers or pay some sort of penalty. And she supports expansion of the state-federal Children’s Health Insurance Program. … .. Clinton Health Plan Due

“Individual mandates” are also supported by John
Edwards, but not Barack
Obama. It’s one item that I think is very important in any universal plan.

I’ll have much more to add on Clinton after the speech.

UPDATE IV, Press Briefing after speech: Live blogging notes are below:

“Choice” is at the core of the plan, with a “range of options.” Federal Employee Benefits Plan (offered to Congress), as well as a public program modeled on Medicare. A lot of the details will be left to congressional committees, many of whom have great expertise. Enforcement details will be worked out. One of the things Clinton learned is that presidents don’t have to put out a 1,300 page bill on the issue. It’s about “policy dynamics.” She “has to build a strong coalition” and is not required to put out every piece of information on her plan because Congress will play a role. She knows about “legislative success” and the process and how the White House can work with the Congress to get health care change implemented. Laurie Rubiner: If you like your insurance you can keep it. If you’re one of the 47 million uninsured, or you don’t like your insurance, you can buy into the Fed. Emp. Ben. Plan. Also a public program based on the Medicare model, which you can buy into, and employers can access this new pool as well. Refundable tax credit so that it remains affordable. You cannot be denied. Gene Sperling: Refundable tax credits, which will be fashioned so that families will not have to pay more than a certain percentage of their income. Health care should never be “a crushing burden” for families. There’s also “price consciousness,” which means the insured has to understand that the credit has to correspond to your ability to pay for the plan you choose. Health care is excluded from income. Over $250,000 in income, you can get “high end plans,” but you’re on your own and will have to pay for it. Difference between now and Hillary’s plan in ’94: Simpler plan than 94; protects people to keep their coverage; in 94 unions and employers weren’t demanding health insurance overhauls; everyone had to go into one plan in ’94; ’94 more national health care imprint than her plan today; in ’94 small businesses were mandated to pay (they aren’t today), which amounted to a new tax; no new bureuacracy. Joe Klein asked about differences in plans: Edwards would require employer mandate even for small businesses, Clinton would not. Exclusion for high end benefits by Clinton. Clinton’s tax credits have a limit on health premiums. Half of costs are brought down by tax cut roll back. (As an aside, Edwards rolls back Bush tax cuts, but admits that his health care plan will require raising taxes.) Clinton camp claims their plan has a “net tax relief” for working families.

UPDATE III:

First, a huge thank you to Peter Daou and the Clinton campaign for putting
together the ability this morning to hear the speech first hand as it was being
given from Iowa. Free form live blogging notes from the speech are below, but
let me say one thing first. As she did at the first health care forum this year,
Clinton continues to excel on explaining her plans for her presidency. Her preparedness
is unmistakable:

She continues to talk about the “scars” she still has from the her first efforts to change health care. From SEIU to WalMart, everyone is demanding universal coverage for Americans. People satisfied with health care want guarantees they can keep it. This is not “government run health care.” You “can keep the doctors you know” and the insurance you trust. She made a point to talk about health care for veterans, including her “Heroes at Home” plan for serious brain injuries of soldiers. Allow the import of drugs from Canada. After 9/11, Clinton fought the EPA and the Bush administration on the environmental hazards first responders faced. You can choose from the same group of doctors that Congress has today. –INSERT APPLAUSE HERE– A “public plan” will also be available from which you can choose. There will not be a new government department. “You choose.” “You will never be denied coverage because of pre-existing” conditions. Insurance companies can no longer discriminate. –More applause– If you pay your premium and follow the rules, even if you lose your job, insurance companies must cover you, including if you choose to stay home with your kids. Percentage of your income goes to health care. Employers get tax credits so they can begin to get relief and help even manufacturers compete with foreign businesses. Small businesses get tax credits and are not demanded to cover their employees, but the incentives are to encourage that they do. She talked about “biologics” and the pharmaceuticals that must be made more affordable. Some companies spend “$50 billion figuring out how *not* to insure people.” The emphasis on predisposed illnesses and how that impacts people was a big focus of Clinton’s speech. I won’t pay for it by raising taxes on middle class. Pay for part of it by rolling back the Bush tax cuts. Rolling back some of the health care tax breaks for people making $250,000 and more.

UPDATE: More details:

1. Offer New Coverage Choices for the Insured and Uninsured: The American Health Choices Plan gives Americans the choice to preserve their existing coverage, while offering new choices to those with insurance, to the 47 million people in the United States without insurance, and the tens of millions more at risk of losing coverage. · The Same Choice of Health Plan Options that Members of Congress Receive: Americans can keep their existing coverage or access the same menu of quality private insurance options that their Members of Congress receive through a new Health Choices Menu, established without any new bureaucracy as part of the Federal Employee Health Benefit Program (FEHBP). In addition to the broad array of private options that Americans can choose from, they will be offered the choice of a public plan option similar to Medicare. · A Guarantee of Quality Coverage: The new array of choices offered in the Menu will provide benefits at least as good as the typical plan offered to Members of Congress, which includes mental health parity and usually dental coverage. 2. Lower Premiums and Increase Security: Americans who are satisfied with the coverage they have today can keep it, while benefiting from lower premiums and higher quality. · Reducing Costs: By removing hidden taxes, stressing prevention and a focus on efficiency and modernization, the plan will improve quality and lower costs. · Strengthening Security: The plan ensures that job loss or family illnesses will never lead to a loss of coverage or exorbitant costs. · End to Unfair Health Insurance Discrimination: By creating a level-playing field of insurance rules across states and markets, the plan ensures that no American is denied coverage, refused renewal, unfairly priced out of the market, or forced to pay excessive insurance company premiums. 3. Promote Shared Responsibility: Relying on consumers or the government alone to fix the system has unintended consequences, like scaled-back coverage or limited choices. This plan ensures that all who benefit from the system share in the responsibility to fix its shortcomings. · Insurance and Drug Companies: insurance companies will end discrimination based on pre-existing conditions or expectations of illness and ensure high value for every premium dollar; while drug companies will offer fair prices and accurate information. · Individuals: will be responsible for getting and keeping insurance in a system where insurance is affordable and accessible. · Providers: will work collaboratively with patients and businesses to deliver high-quality, affordable care. · Employers: will help finance the system; large employers will be expected to provide health insurance or contribute to the cost of coverage; small businesses will receive a tax credit to continue or begin to offer coverage. · Government: will ensure that health insurance is always affordable and never a crushing burden on any family and will implement reforms to improve quality and lower cost. 4. Ensure Affordable Health Coverage for All: Senator Clinton’s plan will: · Provide Tax Relief to Ensure Affordability: Working families will receive a refundable tax credit to help them afford high-quality health coverage. · Limit Premium Payments to a Percentage of Income: The refundable tax credit will be designed to prevent premiums from exceeding a percentage of family income, while maintaining consumer price consciousness in choosing health plans. · Create a New Small Business Tax Credit: To make it easier—not harder—for small businesses to create new jobs with health coverage, a new health care tax credit for small businesses will provide an incentive for job-based coverage. · Strengthen Medicaid and SCHIP: The Plan will fix the holes in the safety net to ensure that the most vulnerable populations receive affordable, quality care. · Launch a Retiree Health Legacy Initiative: A new tax credit for qualifying private and public retiree health plans will offset a significant portion of catastrophic expenditures, so long as savings are dedicated to workers and competitiveness. 5. A Fiscally Responsible Plan that Honors our Priorities: · Most Savings Come Through Lowering Spending Due to Quality and Modernization: Over half the savings come from the public savings generated from Hillary Clinton’s broader agenda to modernize the heath systems and reduce wasteful health spending. · A Net Tax Cut for American Taxpayers: The plan offers tens of millions of Americans a new tax credit to make premiums affordable—which more than offsets the increased revenues from the Plan’s provisions to limit the employer tax exclusion for healthcare and discontinue portions of the Bush tax cuts for those making over $250,000. Thus, the plan provides a net tax cut for American taxpayers. · Making the Employer Tax Exclusion for Healthcare Fairer: The plan protects the current exclusion from taxes of employer-provided health premiums, but limits the exclusion for the high-end portion of very generous plans for those making over $250,000.