“Hillarycare” crashed and burned in 1993 because it was overly bureaucratic and complicated. She has now gone in the opposite direction—mandatory private coverage. But, I don’t think this policy idea is going to fly, either. When asked how she would force people to buy health insurance, she apparently stated that the wages of refuseniks could be garnished. From the story:
Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton said Sunday she might be willing to garnish the wages of workers who refuse to buy health insurance to achieve coverage for all Americans. The New York senator has criticized presidential rival Barack Obama for pushing a health plan that would not require universal coverage. Clinton has not always specified the enforcement measures she would embrace, but when pressed on ABC’s “This Week,” she said: “I think there are a number of mechanisms” that are possible, including “going after people’s wages, automatic enrollment.”
Clinton said such measures would apply only to workers who can afford health coverage but refuse to buy it, which puts undue pressure on hospitals and emergency rooms. With her proposals for subsidies, she said, “it will be affordable for everyone.”
Well, what kind of bureaucracy would that take to enforce mandatory enrollment and determine who had to pay what?
I have been furious at the Clintons since 1993 because they wasted the one political window of opportunity in my lifetime to straighten American health care out. And now, the mess is worse. Solving the matter will require incremental change, a willingness to limit the scope and breadth of coverage and avoid mine fields like abortion, as well as a mix of public and private coverage opportunities. Perhaps a good place to start would be to reduce Medicare eligibility to age 60. That would bring healthier people into the Medicare system, allowing for a better actuarial spreading of the risk, while at the same time, taking people who are more expensive to care for than young people out of the private pool, thereby helping with affordability in the private sector.
This much is sure: We are all going to have to be flexible in at least some regards or the job will never get done.
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