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| In a new poll, voters see Clinton as the presidential candidate emphasizing healthcare the most. Mark Avery/AP |
Clinton's new gambit on healthcare
After a famous failed effort in the '90s, she unveils her proposal for healthcare reform Monday.
By Linda Feldmann | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitorfrom the September 17, 2007 edition
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Washington - In a presidential primary season dominated by the Iraq war, the No. 1 domestic issue roars onto center stage Monday as Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D) of New York unveils her proposal for healthcare reform.
For Senator Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, the issue is fraught with risks. In 1993 and 1994, she oversaw the failed effort by her husband, former President Clinton, to remake healthcare in America. The old Clinton plan, which would have mandated coverage for all employees through health maintenance organizations, was lampooned by opponents as a government takeover. Mrs. Clinton was also criticized for operating in secrecy.
Now, the former first lady is seeking to turn that failure into a positive – and, so far, is succeeding. A recent poll by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation shows that, among all the presidential candidates, voters see Clinton as placing the biggest emphasis on healthcare. She tops the list with a plurality of 27 percent, followed by Sen. Barack Obama (D) of Illinois with 6 percent. Among Democrats, Clinton is also by far the candidate seen as best representing their views on healthcare, with 35 percent. Among Republican voters, former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was the top choice, with 8 percent.
"Senator Clinton starts off with an edge on health," says Dean Altman, president of the Kaiser Family Foundation. That's "not because the voters have scrutinized the details of anyone's plan, and obviously she's only released pieces of hers so far, but just because they so closely associate her with the issue."
On the stump, Clinton herself often refers to her abortive healthcare reform in the '90s, a failure that played a significant role in the voters' rebuke of her husband during the 1994 midterms, when the Republican Party seized control of both houses of Congress. But she tries to spin that failure into a positive, telling voters that her efforts show how deeply she cares about the issue and that she has "the scars to show for it."
The last piece of Clinton's health plan, to be announced in a speech Monday in Des Moines, Iowa, will focus on insuring the uninsured, a segment of the population that has swelled to 47 million people in the US, out of a population of 300 million. According to published reports, citing Clinton aides speaking on background, the senator's proposal would require insurance companies to accept all applicants for coverage and would limit insurers' ability to charge higher premiums because of preexisting conditions.
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