Hillary Clinton's superb health care plan!

[Colobo]

While rivals Barack Obama and John Edwards have proposed detailed health care overhaul plans, Clinton is taking an incremental approach. She started with a speech in June on reducing costs, followed by Thursday's address on quality, and will outline her plan for universal health care coverage next month.

"My order here is deliberate," she said. "In order to forge a consensus on universal health care, we need to assure people that they will get the quality they expect at a cost they can afford."

"Too often, and in too many places, our health care system hurts us instead of helps us," Clinton said at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. "It hurts doctors, who aren't rewarded for providing the best care and are often punished for it financially. It hurts nurses who are asked to work longer hours, caring for more patients with fewer resources. And it hurts patients, who are forced to make complicated medical decisions without basic information about their conditions and options."

To improve quality, Clinton said she would promote physician certification programs that help doctors keep up with the latest advancements, increasing Medicare reimbursements for doctors who participate in them. Nursing care would get a boost in the form of $300 million to expand enrollment in nursing schools, create mentoring programs for recent graduates and recruit more minorities into the profession.

"The nursing shortage has become a nursing crisis, and that means it is a crisis for everyone," Clinton said. "Our nurses are truly the eyes and ears, and in many ways the heart and soul of our health care system. When we've got fewer nurses, working longer hours and serving more patients, the result can be worse outcomes."

Patients, too, can play a role in improving the quality of health care they receive, she said, if they are given more information about their treatment options. She praised Dartmouth-Hitchcock's Center for Shared Decision Making, saying she would like to see similar programs nationwide.

Clinton also called for overhauling a reimbursement system that she said often punishes doctors for doing the right thing - spending time with patients or working with their colleagues to take a collaborative approach. She proposes higher payments to providers who use teams to provide coordinated care and ending payments for preventable infections and injuries sustained during hospital stays.

More at:
http://www.miamiherald.com/692/story/212966.html

There you have it- a clear, comprehensive universal health care plan. Just what America needs! :)

[defendandprotect]

1. Extending Medicare to everyone --- ??? Is that what she means???

I'm not clear on that --

Further, what we already pay in health costs would provide for one of the most luxurious health care systems -- on a par with what Switzerland has -- so we're not short of money.

What we need to avoid is the theft in the privatization of the system --

and the lack of humanity/dignity in the system --

with too much reliance on "slash and burn" treatments rather than preventive health care.

Good for Hillary for her recommendations on making the system an honest and progressive one.

[MannyGoldstein]

7. I'll Bet $100 She Won't Back Medicare For All

Do I have a taker?

She'll say proud and meaningless things, like "let's use technology to cut costs", "healthcare for children is good", "we need private/public partnerships", and so forth. She has never, ever stood up for anything even the slightest bit controversial since HillaryCare went down in flames.

[MannyGoldstein]

14. Oh C'mon! No Clinton Fans Want To Wager? (nt)

[liberaldemocrat7]

33. I just made a bumper sticker about single payer universal health care.

Look at the latest entry in my journal. Click on my journal button in this message.

[draft_mario_cuomo]

2. The article says she will outline a UNIVERSAL health care plan next month

I hope she does. It would be a tragedy for millions of people if we nominate someone who supports a triangulating non-universal health care plan. However, we should reserve judgment until her plan comes out. Let's see the details. Another candidate also claimed he would offer a universal health care but the plan is at least 15 million short of being universal.

[Mythsaje]

3. Those are good ideas... n/t

[Deja Q]

4. She may support H1Bs, but that's not a bad potential coverage system.

[ramapo]

5. She left out the part about everybody getting insurance

Nothing said about a few very simple concepts.

Every citizen should be guaranteed medical insurance coverage without regard to pre-exisiting conditions. Coverage needs to be truly affordable and there should be no gatekeeper beyond the doctor deciding upon treatment. Doctors must be quickly and fairly compensated for providing treatment, not for denying it. There should be a single-payer.

Hillary has made an empty statement of gobbly-gook.

[JTFrog]

12. Insurance companies

should be removed from the picture completely. They just add to the problem by increasing the cost of health care and denying claims.

----
Hillary Rodham Clinton promised Thursday that as president she would improve health care quality by raising standards for providers, educating patients and requiring insurers to reward innovation.
----

Requiring insurers to give rewards? That would surely increase the insurers costs which increase health care costs which increase corporate profits.

You won't have true universal health care coverage for this country until we eliminate the middleman. We don't need them for medicare so we surely don't need them if the plan is to extend medicare to all.

Do any of the candidates besides DK understand this?

[Hieronymus]

20. Absolutely .. insurance companies won't fix anything.

[shimmergal]

43. We DO need them for Medicare, the way

it's set up now. The 25% co-pays and the other exclusions can still ruin recipients' budgets and financial stability.

And in the last few years, the increases in monthly deductions for Medicare have nearly eaten up the small cost-of-living "raise" to monthly social sescurity payments.

I'd love to see insurance cos. absolutely forbidden to have anything to do with health sector payments. Taking this profit factor out would probably mean an immediate 50-75% drop in average charges for most procedures. How to bring it about, however, is another problem...

[Nederland]

6. That's not a plan

It's a list of what is wrong with the system, and simply listing problems is not a plan. Certainly, identifying what the problems are is an important first step, but don't call it a plan. The only thing specific that she proposes is: "higher payments to providers who use teams to provide coordinated care and ending payments for preventable infections and injuries sustained during hospital stays." That's it. It falls far far short of what you labeled a "comprehensive universal health care plan".

[Colobo]

8. LOL! Really?

I guess I didn't notice... ;)

[Nederland]

10. Instead of a plain smiley at the end of you post...

...you should use :eyes:

Then we'd all know you were being sarcastic...

[Colobo]

13. LOL!

[HeraldSquare212]

9. And I think the latter

is about to be implemented, there was a story on a few days ago - ending payments for injuries and conditions caused by the care received at a hospital, e.g., bedsores.

[Totally Committed]

11. She's so full of sh*t, you don't wanna be around when she sneezes!

Incremental, my a**!

Ugh. She cannot be our nominee!

TC

[nealmhughes]

15. Advance copy leaked today: Step One: Make more money to pay for insurance.

Step Two: Turn 65 so you qualify for Medicare.

See how uncomplicated that is! Brilliant plan, I must say.

GMAFB :sarcasm:

[Warpy]

16. I can tell her 2 1/2 hours following a nurse around

didn't teach her much of anything.

Half the licensed RNs in this country are out of the profession due to working conditions. No matter how many new grads she shoves through schools (and where the hell is she going to find nursing teachers willing to work for less than they get in the trenches?), she will still have a nursing shortage until she forces hospitals to address the JOB.

[HeraldSquare212]

17. yeah it's the teachers

not the students that are the issue - I've heard of programs turning people away because they can't find teachers.

[Colobo]

18. But Hillary has the experience! She should know that! :)

[durrrty libby]

24. Obama's numbers are going down the toilet and your coping

mechanisms are poor

[huskerlaw]

41. Hillary's health-care plan is just a bunch of empty, vague, generalized statements

and your coping mechanisms are poor.

[Peacemaker NYC]

19. Are you kidding me? What a bunch of double speak!!!

"In order to forge a consensus on universal health care, we need to assure people that they will get the quality they expect at a cost they can afford."

What kind of "quality" do the 46 million Americans without insurance "expect" exactly? And what is this "affordable" crap that Clinton, Obama and Edwards keep talking about? If you can't put afford to feed your family how are you going to "afford" this "health care"? Where's the humanity? THE ONLY REAL Universal Haelth Care Proposal is HR676 the one Dennis Kucinich co-authored BEFORE the 2004 election. Wake Up America. Vote Kucinich. http://www.koo-sin-ich.com

[ProudDad]

21. For-profit "health insurance"

is NOT Health Care. In fact, for-profit health care is an oxymoron.

Only ONE candidate is supporting truly universal, single-payer Health Care for ALL -- HR 676 and Dennis Kucinich...

[defendandprotect]

26. We don't want no stinkin' "for-profit "health insurance" --- !! Extend Medicare to everyone --!!

[durrrty libby]

22. "Clinton vows to improve US health care" would have been the correct

headline for this article. Your headline misleads people

[Tellurian]

28. adding...(I'm not making it public because Obama would attempt plagiarizing it..)

and calling "her" plan just like his... as he does everything else.

His campaign is in shambles. That is why the Obamacampers are unhappy.

[Colobo]

23. We are proud of her!

[Karmadillo]

25. Relax, Obama fans. The primaries are ages away. You don't need to post

distortions this ridiculous for another couple of months.

[antigop]

27. Oh, this is rich! She will consider this... she will consider that....HOW ABOUT A REAL PLAN, HUH???

How interesting that she said something today.

Did she feel forced to say something because some of us have been asking where her plan is?

[Tellurian]

29. See post #28

[antigop]

30. oh, please! SHE DOESN'T HAVE A PLAN!

[Tellurian]

31. and you know this how?

[antigop]

40. Please look up the definition of "Consider" n/t

[killbotfactory]

32. All this will be yours, by the end of her second term!

Hooray!

[Larkspur]

34. I'm sure H1B Visas could solve the nursing shortage

and bet the importees will work for peanuts compared to their American counterparts. I'm sure the healthcare industry would love that. It worked so well for the American computer programming industry. (/sarcasm)

[eridani]

35. This is bullshit. She doeen't mention insurance company theft of health care dollars

She says nothing, NOTHING!!, about health care for all, no exceptions.

[corkhead]

36. you forgot

your :sarcasm: smiley thingy

[The River]

37. I'm Sure She Will Do a Great Job

delivering health care.....
Just like she did in 92..

[antigop]

38. YOOHOO, Michael Moore! Hillary doesn't support single-payer government system!

"Clinton said her universal health care plan would not involve a single-payer government system"


Dear Michael Moore:
You were right.

Please mention this on your website.

[cutlassmama]

44. I wish Michael Moore would run for president eom

[antigop]

39. I guess those healthcare industry contributions are paying off for them, huh? n/t

[huskerlaw]

42. It must be a secret plan

Seriously. Every time I hear her talk about her "plan" it reminds me of a scene from The West Wing wherein Josh Lyman is covering for CJ Cregg at a daily briefing and, when asked about what the administration plans to do about inflation, doesn't have an answer. So he claims that President Bartlet is working on a plan...but nobody has any details. It is then referred to as "the secret plan to fight inflation".

Hmmm. I wonder why I am reminded of this... :eyes:

[creeksneakers2]

45. I think its a mistake to offer a detailed plan at this point

It would be better to build public support for key elements of a program. Fill in the details later. Otherwise, the GOP will pick apart the detailed plan with disinformation and the whole thing will get derailed again.

[LWolf]

46. It's as bad in it's own way as Obama's, that's for sure. n/t

[Vinca]

47. So where's the "plan" part? Allowing people to buy insurance

isn't a "plan." I'm allowed to buy insurance now - it's the $12,000 a year price tag that's stopping me. A "plan" also means you don't lose sleep worrying whether you're covered sufficiently for whatever circumstance you find yourself in. People with health "coverage" shouldn't be worrying about bankruptcy. Why is this so hard for the so-called "mainstream" candidates to figure out? Even expanding Medicare as it is now means you will be on the hook for a portion of the bill so high you'll probably lose everything. I don't get it. I really don't. Why is there always plenty of money for war?

[buddhamama]

48. what plan?

am i missing something? all i've read here are quotes from speeches.