battle over clinton health care proposal
...tic and Republican congressional staff, they only recruited from the Democratic congressional staff. In addition, they failed to recruit representatives from the business communities that would be affected by a national health care system , such as big businesses, small businesses and insurers. Even before Bill Clinton assumed office and appointed the President’s Task Force on National Health Reform, several stakeholders had already declared opposition and set forth new proposals for a national health care system. None of these stakeholders were recruited to work with the task force. Although the task force members made efforts to talk to members of the business communities, many of the business community members felt that the task force had already come up with a policy and their concerns and input were not taken into consideration. As a result, the analysis performed by the task force was biased and incomplete; they lost the confidence of several of the business communities in favor of the proposal and strengthened the opposition of those who had expressed concerns over it. It was not until the end of May, several weeks past the deadline allocated by Bill Clinton, that the task force presented their proposal. . Due to several other issues that Clinton had to address, he was not able to turn his full attention to his health care reform proposal until early September. The health care reform did not become the high priority that he initially promised. As a result, those opposed to the proposal were given a lot of time to voice their opinions, pay for television ads and gain support in opposition to Clinton’s proposal before he presented it. Almost a year into his presidency, Clinton finally presented his proposal to Congress. “The American Health Security Act” would “give every American health security, health care than can never be taken way, health care that is always there” (Kennedy School of Government, 2000). He asked Congress to make this their “most urgent priority”. The New York Times wrote an article summarizing the proposal (Kennedy School of Government, 2000): - Goal of universal coverage - Instill a network of “regional health alliances” in which almost all Americans would be enrolled. - The regional health alliances would provide members with a choice of at least three health plans, including a standard minimum benefits package and at least on traditional fee-for-service offering. - Would provide consumers with more extensive coverage than most insurance policies currently offered. - Employers would be required to pay 80% of the cost of the average premium for full-time employees; part-time workers would be covered on a pro-rated basis. - The plan would mean $350 billion in new federal spending between 1994-2000, but the administration anticipated that no new taxes would be imposed. - Overseeing the health care program would be a seven-member “National Health Board” , which would monitor the administration of the health alliances and establish national criteria for a standard health benefits package. Polls taken right after Clinton’s speech indicated that 59% of the public viewed the proposal favorable. The general public consensus was an agreed that there was a problem with the current health care system and that the problem needed to be addressed, however before they could agree with the new health care proposal, they wanted more information on its impacts to the economy and the quality of health care that would be made available (Kennedy School of Government, 2000). Both sides of Congress also expressed mixed messages of skepticism and support. The final major fault of the task force was their lack of communication to congress, the public and the media. “Legislators, city councils, and voters insist on knowing the reason the public executive is taking a certain action. Democratic gove...