For anyone who is truly concerned about the crisis in the US health care system and who wants the next President to vigorously pursue a policy of universal coverage for all Americans, the contrasts between the candidates' positions could not be clearer.
In fact, I am amazed that none of the diaries here or elsewhere have picked up on the fact that both John Edwards and Barack Obama have promised to get to work on universal health insurance in their first year in Office, and that they have also promised to enact comprehensive health care reform by the end of their first term in Office.
And Mrs. Clinton, in sharp contrast, has made no such promises. And in fact, every time she has been asked the question directly of when she will enact universal health care for the American people, she does not even pretend that this is an issue she wants to address in her first term, if elected President. It is not on her action agenda. She has said she will enact universal coverage by the END OF HER SECOND TERM.
More below the fold:
So we can argue over the small differences in the candidates' universal coverage plans until we are blue in the face, but the real question for the American people is who will actually deliver on this promise and WHEN?
Why this is important?
This is significant, beacuse as anyone who has studied history understands, a new President must act swiftly upon taking office if s/he is serious about enacting major social reform, like universal coverage. The chances for success in social policy drop precipitously if a bill has not been introduced into the Congress within the first three months of a new Presidency.
Edwards and Obama understand the need to get straight to work on universal coverage when they take the oath of office. The so called "policy windows" opens only briefly and if a new President is truly committed to enacting major social change, s/he must act quickly and purposefully with the Congress. Any delay or faltering and the window slams shut for another 15-20 years. The stakes are indeed high.
Mrs. Clinton, in sharp contrast to Barack Obama and John Edwards, has neither pledged to work towards universal coverage in her first term, nor has she committed to start working on it in her first year. When pressed, she did not include universal coverage on her "to do list" her first year as President (if elected).
In fact, what Hilary Clinton has said publicly is that she will commit to getting universal health insurance "by the end of her second term." You heard it right. By 2016!
On what basis do I make these claims? On the basis of Mrs. Clinton's own words.
I can't remember the first time I heard her proudly announce that she will enact health care reform "by the end of my second term" but I have found a reference to it by one of the moderators in the health care debate held last March and have printed her verbatim response below.
In the Presidential Forum on Health Care held on March 24, 2007, the moderator, in questioning Senator Clinton, refers to the fact that Senators Edwards and Obama would enact universal coverage in their first term and refers to Mrs. Clinton's prior statement that would "promise universal coverage by the end of her second term". Mrs. Clinton made the original statement before this forum.
KAREN TUMULTY: Senator Clinton, we're out of time, but I did want to ask you one last quick question. Several candidates we have heard from today have said that they think they can get to universal coverage in their first term. You have suggested that it could take two terms. It could take eight years. Are they being realistic?
HILLARY CLINTON: Well, I think we all are going to try to start as soon as possible. You know, it took three years to implement the Medicare prescription drug benefit. Well, you know what, I didn't vote for it, but, you know, and this administrative doesn't exactly have the greatest track record on competence, so I can't judge exactly by that, but it took a while.
I think we can move forward quickly, but make no mistake about it, this will be a series of steps. But let me end where I started. We're all for universal health care. You know, we had a big debate about it in '93, '94. That debate is over. The Democrats stand united. We are all for universal health care. What we have to do is persuade the country not only to vote for a Democratic president, we have to help elect a Democratic Congress.
Because if you look at the politics of this, and I know that people around are not thinking about politics because that's kind of a downer, but if you look at the politics, we got stopped in the Senate in 1994 by a filibuster. You know what that means is unless you get 60 votes, which mean usually unless you've got more than 60 Democrats you've got to get some Republicans.
We got stopped because they basically said, we're not going to do it. And we couldn't break it and that was the end. We can't get enough Republicans right now to vote with us to try to begin to end the war in Iraq. We can't. We're trying.
Every single week we come up with something else to try to get them to vote with us. But the way the Senate works, you've got to get the 60 votes. So that's why I said I sure hope you elect me president, but I want more Democrats in the Senate, and I want a movement to support health care reform. And we're going to need it so let's make sure that's what we do in the next two years.
As usual, Mrs. Clinton did not answer the question and i am not at all sure what she said in that answer, but it sounds like she will spend her first two years in Office "building a movement" for health care reform. Huh? Two years building a movement? What are the odds of that strategy producing major health care reform? Close to zero. And it is also interesting to note that she took absolutely no responsibility for this failure and instead blamed it on the Republicans. Now, you can blame a lot of policy failure on the Republicans, but in this case, I am afraid that the only ones to blame are The Clintons themselves.
I have also attached below the responses each candidate made in one of the very last debates before the NH Primary about what they would accomplish in their first year in office. You will see that, again, while Edwards and Obama say they will get to work on the problem of universal health insurance in their first year, Mrs. Clinton says no such thing. The only thing she promises to do in her first year with respect to health care is to sign the Children's Health Insurance Program bill, which President Bush vetoed. I don't think anyone would call this "leadership on universal health care."
Here are the statements each candidate made with respect to health care reform on what they would do in their first year in office?
The moderator's question:
WASHBURN: Thank you.
In light of the big needs and the financial realities we've talked about up to this point, what realistically do you believe you could accomplish in your first year as president?
We're going to go down the line. I'll ask you to each keep this to 30 seconds.
(Below, I only post the part of their statement that related to health care):
Senator Obama?
Number three, we're going to have an open conversation with all the key players in the health care arena to make sure that we are moving forward on a plan to provide coverage to every single American, and to save money so that we can actually afford it over the long haul.
.
WASHBURN: Senator Edwards?
EDWARDS: I'll begin the process of fighting for health care reform -- universal health care.
.
Senator Clinton?
I'll ask the Congress to send me everything that Bush vetoed, like stem cell research and the Children's Health Insurance Program, and begin to prepare my legislative and budget proposals for the Congress, because you have to move quickly in order to get off to a good start, and that's what I intend to do.
It is not at all surprising that Mrs. Clinton does not want to take on the issue of universal coverage early in her Presidency, if elected. Her effort in 1993-94 was one of the biggest political failures on domestic policy of our time. Mrs Clinton put together a secret task force that held secret meetings and produced a monster bill that was dead on arrival in the Senate. Lawrence O'Donnell, Chief of Staff to Daniel Patrick Moynihan's Senate Finance Committee, referred to the Clinton Bill as the "Spruce Goose" - it was never going to get off the ground (Howard Hughes built an airplane called the Spruce Goose, made of wood).
The Clintons did everything wrong in their health care reform effort. They pursued the policy of Don't Ask Don't Tell, before health care reform. They enacted NAFTA before health care reform. They never could even explain their proposal clearly to the American people, let alone build popular or political support for their plan. Most members of Congress at the time wanted a single payer plan, but the Clintons took that option off the table at the very beginning of their process. The entire effort was an unmitigated disaster and Mrs. Clinton was left holding the bag - and an empty bag at that. No wonder she does not want to revisit those years and that issue anytime soon.
And how in the world is Mrs. Clinton going to be able to "take on" the pharmaceutical industry and health care industry, as she has claimed? She has taken PAC and Federal Lobbyist campaign donations from both these industries in huge amounts. She is in no position to play hardball with them, since they have financed a significant part of her campaign. She can claim no independence from the very industries who have denied access to health care to millions of men, women and children and care only about their bottom lines. Who is she kidding?
Senators Obama and Edwards on the other hand have taken NO PAC or Federal Lobbyist money in their campaigns. They are the only ones who can claim independence from these powerful health care interests in forging a new health care policy for the American people.
So for those of you who are without insurance or think that extending health insurance to all Americans should be a top priority for the next President of the United States, you are going to have to wait nearly another decade to get health insurance if Mrs. Clinton is elected President.
By 2015, it is safe to estmate that at least another 8 million Americans will be uninsured for a total of more 55 million Americans without health insurance (the rate of the uninsured has been growing more than 1 million a year for the last 7 years - source is the US Census, Current Population Survey). And if cost increases have not been controlled by 2015, few of us will be able to afford any health insurance. Mrs. Clintons promise of universal coverage by the end of her second term is empty. No President has the political capital needed at the end of their second term to enact such a significant reform.
Barack Obama and John Edwards, however, have resolved to act quickly to rebuild our health care system and extend affordable, comprehensive insurance to all Americans by the end of their FIRST term. They have no ties to the industries that have controlled and benefited from the health care debate for the last decade and they have both pledged to get straight to work with the Congress to guarantee comprehensive high quality health care for all of the American people. This is a stated priority for their first year upon being elected President of the United States.
The choice is clear. The choice is yours.