Senator Clinton, please listen to me
Sat Feb 02, 2008 at 05:40:42 PM PDT
UPDATE: Hypatica points out that Sen. Clinton does plan to expand Medicaid to cover poor adults without children, which allays many of the concerns I've voiced in this diary.
I grew up when your husband was President. He visited my high school one day 12 years ago when I was a freshman, and here's one of the things he said to us:
Our nation has a lot of challenges that we have to meet together if we're going to make sure the American Dream is available for all young people without regard to their background, if we're going to see that our country remains the strongest country in the world, if we're going to see this country come together instead of being divided by race, by region, by income.
Senator, you and your husband were my hero and heroine. I believed what he told us that day, and I believed him when he shook my hand and looked me in the eye and told me I was the future of this country. I believe that you believe it too.
Senator Clinton, you want to be President next year. I'm so proud, as a young woman, to see you up there as a legitimate candidate. I'm so happy to see that you survived the attacks of the '90s and come out stronger. You've made some mistakes along the way: you voted for the war in Iraq and the Patriot Act, you voted to designate part of Iran's military as a terrorist organization, you argued against Iowa students voting where they go to school, apparently unaware of the years of work your own generation of Democrats put in to make that possible. I can forgive those mistakes. You've also done a lot of good for the country - you've fought for women's choice, for example, and for pay parity and equal opportunity. I believe that the good outweighs the bad, as it does for virtually every Democrat who holds office today.
But you have made one decision that makes it extremely difficult for me to support you. It's not about the past; all of us have some things in our past we're not proud of. This is about the future, about your own American Health Choices Plan. Most of it is very good. In fact, it's much better than Senator Obama's. But there is one part that will have unintended negative consequences for millions of poor and low-income Americans:
Senator Clinton’s plan will:
* Provide Tax Relief to Ensure Affordability: Working families will receive a refundable tax credit to help them afford high-quality health coverage.
* Limit Premium Payments to a Percentage of Income: The refundable tax credit will be designed to prevent premiums from exceeding a percentage of family income, while maintaining consumer price consciousness in choosing health plans.
Senator, I understand that you intend, through this tax credit, to refund Americans' premium payments in part or in whole. This is a noble goal and one which I absolutely support. But the mechanism of tax credits is flawed in the context of delivery of a subsidy for a cost that must be borne monthly.
I understand that you intend to reduce the monthly costs for everyone by broadening the risk pool and banning surcharges for people who are considered high-risk due to pre-existing conditions. This will allow most middle-income Americans, who have some room in their monthly budget, to afford the up-front costs of coverage.
However, there are millions of poor Americans - students, the unemployed and the working poor - who simply do not have the ability to make that kind of change. Many of us live on less income than some people today pay in premiums: for instance, I currently subsist on the payments from the Montgomery G.I. Bill, which amount to under $10,000/year. I simply cannot pay for anything above what I have right now. If I were required to buy health insurance, I would have to stop buying groceries.
For those who are able to make the payments in order to qualify for the tax credit in the first year that your plan is in effect, the tax credit will be wonderful and it will allow them to resume living their normal lifestyle, with the addition of the peace of mind that comes with health care coverage. But most of us low-income Americans will not be able to give up paying for food, housing or heat long enough to qualify for the credit. I ask you to consider modifying your plan in such a way that it is clear you have not forgotten us and that we will be able to participate in your plan for universal health care and comply with your mandate.
One of your supporters has suggested that one way the poor could be subsidized up-front is through recognizing their eligibility for the credit and applying it to their tax withholding in their weekly or monthly checks, perhaps even paying them directly if the credit is more than the taxes withheld from them. This is a good idea but it is not sufficient.
As I mentioned, my income is the G.I. Bill, which is tax-free. Millions of other Americans have no regular interaction with the the tax system because their income comes from tax-free or informal sources such as day labor, nanny or babysitting work, community-service-based stipends, student financial aid and the like; their only interaction with the IRS, like mine, is filing taxes at the end of the year. Many self-employed people find themselves in the same situation. All of us would struggle enormously with the extra burden of a monthly premium payment, even with the promise of a refund at the end of the year.
One of your opponents, John Edwards, had a plan which included an up-front subsidy to low-income Americans so that we could enroll at little or no immediate cost. Senator Clinton, I hope that you will consider something similar. Universal healthcare is desperately needed in this country, but if it comes at the expense of asking your poorest constituents to choose between the law and the basic necessities of life, the cost is too great. If that is not what you had in mind, I hope you will clarify as soon as possible.
Thank you,
Kyril
Student, Clark College, Vancouver, WA
Veteran, U.S. Navy, '03-'07
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