ClintonCare Lite

A gradualist approach to national health care

Michael W. Lynch from the February 1998 issue

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In her 1994 Washington Post op-ed piece, Secretary Shalala wrote, "[L]ife is a preexisiting condition. When insurance companies deny coverage to a person...because they are considered to be at risk of getting sick...I call it discrimination."

Make no mistake: The forces of national health care are back, this time with the support of more than a handful of Republicans. The immediate target may be managed care, but the eventual goal is national health care. Managed care must mean care managed from Washington.

In September, President Clinton told the Service Employees International Union that if "what I tried before won't work, maybe we can do it another way." Upon accepting his commission's recommendations, Clinton confirmed his plan: "[W]hile people may not have wanted to bite the whole apple at once in 1994, almost the whole populace wants to keep nibbling away at the apple until we actually have solved the problems of cost, accessibility and quality for all responsible American citizens."

One can only hope that "responsible American citizens" will realize that this apple is rotten before a slithery Clinton and his compatriots in Congress persuade them to take another bite.