Sen. Clinton Proposes Health Care System

Las Vegas Sun ^ | Jan 12, 2004 | SARA KUGLER

[neverdem]

NEW YORK (AP)

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton plans to focus this year on improving health care, beginning with a proposal designed to modernize the sharing of medical information nationwide.

The senator, who as first lady presided over a failed effort at health care overhaul, told a gathering of about 100 New York City health care leaders at a Manhattan hospital on Monday that the current system "often seems fragmented, redundant, inefficient and bureaucratic."

"Americans need a new, modern, 21st-century version of health care delivery, based on the premise of information in the hands of the right people at the right time," Clinton said.

Clinton's legislation would create a nationwide electronic system to enable American health providers to share health records.

Some doctors, hospitals and pharmacies already use electronic health records in areas like paperless prescriptions. But electronic medical records aren't widely used, and Clinton says a government-created system with special standards could change that.

Her new legislation also would increase research on the quality and effectiveness of care, and provide the public with a standardized reporting system that would allow patients to compare performance on hospitals and other providers.

Dr. Benjamin Chu, president of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corp., called the plan a "very thoughtful approach to a very complicated area."

Clinton, D-N.Y., fought unsuccessfully a decade ago to expand affordable health care. The initiative died after industry interests and many members of Congress resisted to what they called a confusing bureaucracy.

Clinton has said she learned lessons from the failure.

[neverdem]

FYI

[tiamat]

Didn't Hill already try this and blow it?

I wish she and Bubba would just sit down and shut up.

Tia

[ClearCase_guy]

based on the premise of information in the hands of the right people at the right time," Clinton said.

Hillary is real big on getting sensitive information into the hands of the "right people". She's dangerous.

[Fighter@heart]

"Clinton has said she learned lessons from the failure." OBVIOUSLY NOT, AS SHE still seeks the public eye. If she learned anything it is how to be even more sneeky and underhanded to gain her objectives. The have already named "Mad Cow" after her, what does this repugnent fat ankled witch want?! Can't THEY just go away and expouse their socialism elsewhere?

[princess leah]

OH NO, NOT HEALTHCARE AGAIN, HILLARY!

[stubernx98]

Yeah, when Bubba & Bubbette goes to Canada for thier health care then I will listen. But then the 'get something for nothing' gang may like it.

[goodnesswins]

HEY, HILLARY..... Get the Government OUTTA healthcare you idiot. That's the only way to solve healthcare's problems.....but, YOU'LL NEVER DO IT. GO AWAY.

[Lizavetta]

This country does not have a healthcare crisis but a lifestyle crisis. If people would only eat right and exercise, most of our illnesses would disappear.

But I understand it's human nature to just do what you damn well please and force someone else to pick up the tab.

[WhaddaboutThisOne?]

Those of you concerned about the collection and consolidation of personal information should check out what's being done re airline security, among other issues - for example:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1056476/posts

[Lizavetta]

Monday that the current system "often seems fragmented, redundant, inefficient and bureaucratic."

And she thinks governmental control would result in anything different....

So much for being 'the smartest woman in the world'.

[Euro-American Scum]

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton plans to focus this year on improving health care, beginning with a proposal designed to modernize the sharing of medical information nationwide.

Not again?

[freedomcrusader]

But electronic medical records aren't widely used, and Clinton says a government-created system with special standards could change that.

LOL! Yeah, the gov't created electronic medical record would be worse than paper records, you can be sure of that.

BTW, the Bush administration is already pushing hard on the sharing of medical information: National Health Information Infrastructure

[The South Texan]

Memo to congress and the President:


Keep this person away from our healthcare system.


/s/ The South Texan

[MrConfettiMan]

...beginning with a proposal designed to modernize the sharing of medical information nationwide.

Why doesn't she start by getting her husband to release his medical records for public consumption?

[neverdem]

Electronic medical records would be great for medicine, but it would be lousy for privacy. How ironic is it that this is proposed by the former co-president who couldn't find her Rose billing records for years and some how had access to hundreds of FBI files?

[mattdono]

Hillary's Health Care Plan

In 1994, Hillary Rodham Clinton set out to change the country's health-care system and convened a panel to develop a plan secretly. This was a endeavor paid for by taxpayers, but held behind closed doors-- in violation of federal law.

Important aspects of the plan:

• The plan aimed to cut the number of doctors (called "cost centers") by one quarter in order to cut demand by limiting supply.
• The plan aimed to cut costs by cutting the number of specialists in half.
• The plan prescribed the following fines:

  * $5,000 for refusing to join the government-mandated health plan.

  * $5,000 for failing to pay premiums on time.

  * 15 years to doctors who received "anything of value" in exchange for helping patients short-circuit the bureaucracy.

  * $10,000 a day for faulty physician paperwork.

  * $50,000 for unauthorized patient treatment.

  * $100,000 a day for drug companies that messed up federal filings.

• Would have mandated the Federal Government to build a database containing every American's medical records and require all individuals to carry a card containing a chip storing our complete medical history. This information would be available to government officials and researchers without your approval or knowledge.
• Would have set out to control the number and type of doctors permitted to practice in an geographical area.
• A Congressional Budget Office report (8-10-94) said the bill would cost more than $1 trillion in the first eight years.
• An association of U.S. Hospitals study estimated the plan would have added 59 new government offices staffed by 100,000 new bureaucrats.

Hillary quotes about the plan:

• When a woman complained that she didn't want to get shoved into a plan not of her choosing, the first lady lectured, "It's time to put the common good, the national interest, ahead of individuals."
• When told the plan could bankrupt small businesses, Mrs. Clinton sighed, "I can't be responsible for every undercapitalized small business in America."

Other quotes about the plan:

• "I have never read an official document that seemed so suffused with coercion and political naivete ... with its drastic prescriptions for controlling the conduct of state governments, employers, drug manufacturers, doctors, hospitals and you and me."
  - Martha Derthick of the University of Virginia
• Senator Moynihan said, "The American people got it clear enough…to cut the number of doctors in the country by a quarter…If you have fewer doctors you have fewer doctor bills. But you don't associate it with improving medicine."
  
  Moynihan also noted, Hillary's bill aimed to cut costs by cutting "the number of specialists in half." Moynihan vehemently objected, arguing that specialists are a function of science--new discoveries create new specialties. Moynihan, defending New York's teaching hospitals which produce specialists, said, "We are not swamped with specialists; we abound in them. And that is surely the glory of this great moment of medical discovery."

The illegality of the panel: The secrecy of the task force was challenged in a lawsuit by the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons. The judge, imposing $286,000 in sanctions against the administration for the AAPS's legal fees, denounced what he called the "cover-up" of efforts to keep the health care planning secret. Noting that "reprehensible" misstatements had been made to him, he denounced decisions "made at the highest levels of government," which must be held accountable "when its officials run amok." He said the executive branch "was dishonest with this court" and declared that "some government officials never learn that the cover-up can be worse than the underlying conduct."

Would Mrs. Clinton Still Pursue This Plan? "You may remember that we tried to do that [pass her health care bill] in 1993 and 1994. We weren't totally successful, but I did not give up."
- Hillary Clinton speech, February 22, 2000.

Source: http://gfreitag.tripod.com/Health_Care_Plan.html

[mattdono]

"You may remember that we tried to do that [pass her health care bill] in 1993 and 1994. We weren't totally successful, but I did not give up."

Yes, I guess that she didn't give up.

[mombonn]

current system "often seems fragmented, redundant, inefficient and bureaucratic."

Substitute, "sinator hillary!" for "current system", and you have a pretty good description of the evil sinator.

[twigs]

The Hillary for President people are assaulting the IA airwaves with ads promoting Hillary for President. I'm sure the timing of this proposal is not coincidental. This woman is very, very dangerous.