Universal Health Care Solutions Should Straddle Party Lines

Three Democratic presidential candidates have made universal health care a big part of their campaign platform.

Monday, Hillary Clinton became the third Democratic presidential candidate to unveil her vision as part of the Clinton "American Health Choices Plan," which requires everyone to carry health insurance, much like drivers have to carry auto insurance.

Just as soon as it was announced, critics denounced it as being government-run and unfeasible.
Making health insurance mandatory, as Clinton proposed, is going too far and would likely kill the proposal on the drawing board -- but at least we are glad the three Democratic candidates have come up with a blueprint of what they think might work.

One-sixth of U.S. residents don't have health insurance. Of this figure, 9 million are children. It's unthinkable that these children have to rely on emergency rooms and over-the-counter medicines because they don't have easy accessibility to health care.

The three health insurance plans proposed each by Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards share several common elements: income-related federal subsidies for buying insurance, a health insurance exchange or health market to bargain for cheaper premiums (Obama and Edwards,) and taxing the rich or repealing tax cuts for the wealthy (Clinton and Edwards.)

Some sticking points that remain are health insurance mandates that require small business owners to buy health insurance for their employees or pay into a fund as Edwards proposed, and just the cost of the program -- $100 billion (Edwards) and $120 billion (Clinton.) Obama has not ventured a dollar figure in his plan.

Expecting a universal health care plan to be cheap is unrealistic. If the nation feels that some semblance of health insurance should be available to all, politicians need to summon their political will to make it happen.

It's not fair to keep bashing Clinton 13 years after her aborted health care plan as First Lady almost jeopardized her husband's presidency. True, Clinton made mistakes then. Her plan was too radical and done with no feedback from the legislators who would actually vote on it.

But America's health insurance crisis is far bigger than Clinton, Edwards and Obama and their candidacies. And it's bound to get worse unless something is done.

For a start, a subsidized pilot plan could be made available to residents without actually mandating health insurance coverage. Making sure all children are covered under some health care plan is a good start. Expecting employers to fund health care insurance for all workers or pay into a fund to pay for the uninsured is not realistic -- and will be fought tooth and nail by corporate America lobbyists.

But a health insurance exchange or a co-op that can muscle in its purchasing power and secure lower premiums is not a bad idea. Ways to cut costs of health care should be proposed and enacted.
The country's health insurance crisis is not Democratic or Republican, it's a national problem and a meaningful solution will not be possible without a bipartisan effort.