ClintonCare 2.0
Bloomberg (via Drudge) reports that Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) will be pushing a new universal health care plan as part of her presidential run
Clinton's dilemma is a case study of a candidate's attempt to convert a potential liability into an asset while opponents seek to make it a fatal flaw. Clinton may have the upper hand as pressure for an overhaul of the $2.1 trillion-a-year U.S. health-care system has grown since the legislative failure of 1993-94.
Costs have continued to outpace inflation, the number of uninsured has increased and fewer employers are offering coverage to workers. The Business Roundtable, led by the chief executives of companies such as General Motors Corp., has joined union leaders in urging coverage for everyone.
The government's accepted role in health care has expanded, with Medicare, the U.S. program for the elderly and disabled, adding prescription drug benefits, and the federal government subsidizing coverage for 6 million children in low-income families.
That Clinton will be doing something along these lines is inevitable, though the absolute lack of details puts most of us in the position of Rhesus monkeys waiting for the next random electric shock. The Bloomberg story notes that John Edwards and Barack Obama have already released plans but, truth be told, I don't recall that at all, or at least any of the details. And in one of the great ironies of recent political moments, it will be quite hilarious if President Bush's massive expansion of Medicare helps make full-blown–and fully-blowing–national health a brutal reality in the years to come.