Why Was The Clinton Health Care Plan Successful

The purpose of this essay is to discuss why Clinton’s Health Plan was unsuccessful. It will detail the features of the plan, explain why it failed and describe the influence of the various interest groups and government entities in the process. It will also discuss the policy process and the key players involved and other circumstances that shaped this policy-making effort.
As with most presidents once they enter into office as Commander in Chief, they set out to leave their mark in U.S. history by doing something profound and worthy of being mentioned in history books. Some do so by trying to rectify the mistakes of their predecessors. Some do so by cementing their legacy through ground breaking legislation. Whatever the case may be, their
ultimate goal is to change history by tackling a problem and making the country a better place for its citizens. This was the goal of the 42nd President Bill Clinton when he embraced the opportunity to reform our greatly wounded health care system.
When Clinton began his campaign for Presidency, one of the main issues that he chose as part of his campaign platform was healthcare reform. This excited many people due to the fact that there were a great deal of people who were uninsured. It was estimated that approximately 37 million Americans were without medical insurance during this time period. At the time of the September 1993 speech, nearly six out of ten Americans (59 percent) said that they supported the Clinton health plan (Blendon, Brodie, Benson, 1995). Clinton’s plan included tackling many large health care issues. The idea was to provide basic universal coverage for all American citizens. The Clinton health care plan, also known as the Health Security Act, was the healthcare reform package that Bill Clinton proposed as the solution to our failing health care system.
The 1,431 page document outlined the President’s vision of the way health services should be provided and financed (Longest, 2010). The bill was advantageous in the sense that it sought to correct a myriad of failures within the health care system. The benefits package consists of the following items and services: hospital services, services of health professionals, emergency and ambulatory medical and surgical services, clinical preventive services, mental health and substance abuse services, family planning services and services for pregnant women, hospice care, home health care, extended care services, ambulance services, outpatient laboratory, radiology, and diagnostic services, outpatient prescription drugs and biologicals, outpatient rehabilitation services, durable medical equipment and prosthetic and orthotic devices, vision care, dental care, health education classes, and investigational treatments (Randall,
1993).
It was an aggressive stab at attempting to rectify many large issues at once. Not only did Clinton’s plan attempt to provide universal coverage and regulate the private market; he also sought to control costs through the National Health Board. President Clinton appointed his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton as the head of National Task Force on Health Care Reform. Her job was to create a health care plan that was affordable to everyone. However, despite the enormous amount of effort placed into developing this legislation, Clinton’s health care reform package failed miserably.
In order to understand why there was such a sharp, drastic decline for the support of Clinton’s plan, we need to understand the state of our economy during this time period.
We also need to examine the political environment during this time. In the last two years of the Bush presidency, the economic recession frightened many middle- and lower-income Americans (Yankelovich, 1995). The hesitancy to embrace this new health care reform was understandable. People simply did not want to have to sacrifice financially for the sake of the new health care plan. When legislation calls for sacrifice, voters insist on having a say in its formation (Yankelovich, 1995). Most politicians take the time to meet with the people and seek out their ideas and opinions about what they expect from their government. Unfortunately, this was not the case with Clinton’s reform plan. Technical experts designed it, special interests argued it, political leaders sold it (Yankelovich, 1995). People feared that government would have too much control and worried about government intervention and the possibility of money being misappropriated or wasted. The bottom line was that the basic construct and idea for this reform bill lay solely in the hands of big government and did not have its roots in the desires and demands of this nation’s people.
Clinton faced strong opposition from the Republicans which made implementation of the bill extremely difficult. Republicans favored tax credit approaches to health coverage
over employer mandates such as those included in the president’s plan (Blendon, et al, 1995). Additionally, other parties were in strong opposition to this plan. Doctors were strongly opposed to this plan due to the fact that it restricted how they practiced medicine. It also limited their fees. Pharmaceutical companies were opposed to this bill as well because it …(cite article)
Despite the obvious benefits that Clinton’s health care reform brought to the table, I would have been apprehensive about supporting this new plan as well during this time period. The many flaws present with this legislation were glaring. In conclusion, Clinton’s health care reform package would have succeeded if he had not only the support he needed to implement the legislation but also if he had not set out to tackle so many substantial issues all at once. Perhaps if Clinton had the support he needed and addressed each issue regarding health care in stages as opposed to all at once, there could have been a possibility that it might have worked. Ultimately, Clinton’s attempt at health care reform was a sincere attempt to change a failed healthcare system for U.S. citizens. As the old adage goes, Rome was not built in one day and so it was foolish to believe that something as massive as America’s health care system could be fixed so easily and without obstacles.