Considering that her name is more closely associated with the issue than anyone else running for president, Hillary Clinton’s reluctance to produce a coherent policy statement on health care reform has been very odd indeed. Here’s AP trying its best to air brush one of her recent circumlocutions on the subject:
The reason she hasn’t “set out a plan and said here’s exactly what I will do,” Clinton said, is that she wants to hear from voters what kind of plan they would favor …
It would appear, however, that her handlers have finally convinced her that she can’t get away with such humbug any longer. Thus, we have yesterday’s speech at George Washington University, which focused on cost reduction. Coming from someone who has presumably been thinking about this issue for 14 years, the plan is oddly generic. As the New York Sun puts it:
Her proposals … represent an amalgamation of ideas that she and other Democrats have touted over the years … a nationwide initiative to focus on preventive care; the implementation of “paperless” electronic medical records; reducing the cost of prescription drugs by boosting generics, and pursuing “common sense” medical malpractice reforms.
She also wants to give Medicare the power to strong-arm the drug companies, the folly of which I cover here, and she backs drug importation, the folly of which I cover here. In addition, she wants to create a “Best Practices Institute” that will basically tell everyone how to practice medicine.
So, at first glance, Mrs. Clinton’s plan appears to combine hackneyed ideas with proposals that would further encumber American health care with heavy-handed government intervention in the market. But, hey, at least it’s a plan.
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