Health Care Reform

Former President Bill Clinton introduced a Health Security Proposal in 1993, which was his attempt for a fundamental reform of the American healthcare system (Longest, 2010). In January of 1993, Clinton announced that he would be putting together a team of experts to review the issue of health care cost and develop a plan to propose to congress (Bok, 1998). On September 22, 1993, Clinton then made a speech to Congress announcing this new health plan (Bok, 1993). In his speech, Clinton urged law makers to “Fix a health care system that is badly broken, giving every American health security-health care that is always there, health care that can never be taken away” (Bok, 1993). He also mentioned in his speech that health care was uncertain and too expensive, too wasteful and too bureaucratic- “It has too much fraud and too much greed” (Rample, 2009).

During the development of the bill, President Clinton had his wife, Hillary Clinton work closely on the bill as well. Hillary led the Clinton Administration’s Health Reform efforts (Alan, 2008). For 8 moths, Hillary and her team talked with thousands of Americans to get a better understanding of the health care system’s strengths and weaknesses (Rample, 2009). Hillary met with over 1,000 health care organizations and talked with doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and drug company representatives, as well as uninsured Americans and insured Americans (Rample, 2009). Hillary and her team received over 7,000 letters from citizens telling their stories about their health care experiences (Rample, 2009).

During Clinton’s speech, he mentioned an individual who sent in a letter about his health care situation and his name was Kerry Kennedy. Kennedy was a small business owner who employed...

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...ministration learned from Clinton’s mistakes and more progress can be made.

Works Cited

Bok, D. (1998). The Great Health Care Debate of 1993-94. Retrieved from http://www.upenn.edu/pnc/ptbok.html

Kantz, A. ( February 25, 2008). Why Clinton’s 1993 Health Care Reform Plan Failed. Retrieved from

http://alankatzpolitics.wordpress.com/2008/02/25/why-clintons-1993-health-care-reform-plan-failed/

Klein, E. (January 20, 2008). The Lessons of '94. The American Prospect. Retrieved from http://prospect.org/article/lessons-94

Longest, B., (2010). Health policymaking in the United States. (5th Ed.). Chicago, IL: Health Administration Press.

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/09/bill-clinton-on-health-care-1993/

Smith, Karl. (October 27, 2007). Why is health care reform so difficult to achieve? Retrieved from http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/285/138/