Clinton targeting health care

With just three days to go until Tuesday's primary elections, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., is pulling out all the stops in her campaign to become the next president of the United States.

One of those stops was Schneck Medical Center in Seymour.

On Friday, Clinton sent her senior health care policy adviser to talk to hospital officials in an effort to get them on board with her proposal to provide affordable and accessible health care to all Americans.

Andrea Palm spent an hour Friday afternoon outlining Clinton's proposal and taking questions and suggestions from the small group that attended.

"She cares a lot about health care and her knowledge of the issue is both deep and wide," Palm said of Clinton. "The proposal is very comprehensive."

That proposal, the American Health Choices Plan, offers coverage choices for both the insured and uninsured, lowers health care premiums while increasing security, promotes shared responsibility, ensures affordable health care coverage for all and is fiscally responsible, Palm said.

"The first challenge she laid out to us was that this can't just be about the 47 million people who don't have health care," Palm said. "If we only think about that piece of the puzzle, we are neglecting an opportunity to do other things in the system that really need to get done."

Palm spoke candidly of the failed Health Security Act of 1993 that Clinton was a part of.

"The last time we attempted to do anything about it (health care) was in '93 and '94 with the Health Security Act, an effort she was a leader on as part of President (Bill) Clinton's initiative for universal health care," Palm said. "We spent a lot of time talking about how that experience needed to shape a proposal moving forward and how she really wanted to demonstrate the lessons that she learned."

The first step, Palm said, was reducing the cost of health insurance.

"She really wanted to start with addressing some of those cost pressures," Palm said. "So in May of 2007 she rolled out a proposal to reduce unnecessary costs in the system."

That proposal includes a number of ideas from medical malpractice, prescription drug and insurance reform, to chronic care management and a large prevention initiative as well as enhancing medical information technology.

These initiatives would reduce medical costs for families by an average of $2,200 to $2,500 annually, Palm added.

"We think it's a pretty good start in terms of helping to bring some of those costs down and relieving some of those pressures," she said. "She has a desire to move the system to the front end. If she were here today, she would tell you we have a system of sickness, not a system of wellness."

Another initiative in Clinton's health care proposal centers around quality of care, research and work force issues. Palm said Clinton's campaign has been "creative" in coming up with ways to deal with work force shortages in the medical field.

"From tuition assistance and loan forgiveness to direct federal money to education programs so the pipeline is wider," she said of how Clinton plans to attract more workers to the field. "We tried to come at it a number of different ways to help expand the work force."

The final piece of Clinton's plan deals with the idea of universal health care and giving people control of their futures, Palm said.
"Hillary doesn't want people to perceive they are in the driver's seat when it comes to health care. She wants to put them in the driver's seat," Palm said. "American families will choose which insurance they want."

One of the choices that will be made available to them under Clinton's plan is the Federal Employees Health Benefit Program, Palm said.

For details on Hillary Clinton's health care proposal and her views on other issues, visit www.hillaryclinton.com