Wake up, America. You don't want her in the WH kitchen, much less the WH..
Presidential hopeful U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., speaks at a house party in Concord, N.H. on Thursday, Aug. 23, 2007 (AP Photo/Cheryl Senter)
Posted on 08/23/2007 8:09:54 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
LEBANON, N.H. - Hillary Rodham Clinton promised Thursday that as president she would improve health care quality by raising standards for providers, educating patients and requiring insurers to reward innovation.
While rivals Barack Obama and John Edwards have proposed detailed health care overhaul plans, Clinton is taking an incremental approach. She started with a speech in June on reducing costs, followed by Thursday's address on quality, and will outline her plan for universal health care coverage next month.
"My order here is deliberate," said Clinton, a New York senator. "In order to forge a consensus on universal health care, we need to assure people that they will get the quality they expect at a cost they can afford."
"Too often, and in too many places, our health care system hurts us instead of helps us," Clinton said at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. "It hurts doctors, who aren't rewarded for providing the best care and are often punished for it financially. It hurts nurses who are asked to work longer hours, caring for more patients with fewer resources. And it hurts patients, who are forced to make complicated medical decisions without basic information about their conditions and options."
To improve quality, Clinton said she would promote physician certification programs that help doctors keep up with the latest advancements, increasing Medicare reimbursements for doctors who participate in them. Nursing care would get a boost in the form of $300 million to expand enrollment in nursing schools, create mentoring programs for recent graduates and recruit more minorities into the profession.
"The nursing shortage has become a nursing crisis, and that means it is a crisis for everyone," Clinton said. "Our nurses are truly the eyes and ears, and in many ways the heart and soul of our health care system. When we've got fewer nurses, working longer hours and serving more patients, the result can be worse outcomes."
Patients, too, can play a role in improving the quality of health care they receive, she said, if they are given more information about their treatment options. She praised Dartmouth-Hitchcock's Center for Shared Decision Making, saying she would like to see similar programs nationwide.
Clinton also called for overhauling a reimbursement system that she said often punishes doctors for doing the right thing — spending time with patients or working with their colleagues to take a collaborative approach. She proposes higher payments to providers who use teams to provide coordinated care and ending payments for preventable infections and injuries sustained during hospital stays.
"We need a system that encourages instead of discourages quality," she said.
Speaking later in Manchester, Clinton said her universal health care plan would not involve a single-payer government system. Instead, she said, she would consider expanding Medicare and allow people to join the federal employees insurance program.
"I think you don't want to take choices away from Americans. We're big on choice here. But you've got to have some framework so the choices work better," she said.
Clinton said she also would consider allowing people to purchase health insurance from companies outside their states.
"There is no really strong argument anymore why you couldn't buy insurance across state lines to get better deals," she said. "Why should you be limited to what companies want to come into New Hampshire?"
She certainly did wonders for Vince Foster's health.
Wake up, America. You don't want her in the WH kitchen, much less the WH..
Presidential hopeful U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., speaks at a house party in Concord, N.H. on Thursday, Aug. 23, 2007 (AP Photo/Cheryl Senter)
The common good.. Yes,,
Presidential hopeful U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., speaks at a house party in Concord, N.H. on Thursday, Aug. 23, 2007 (AP Photo/Cheryl Senter)
I'll bet she does.
Second only to lowering taxes in terms of demographic appeal, and no one would believe her if she vowed to do that.
How does this improve health care?
All of the things she mentions are controlled by Congress. She is in a better position now to do those things than she would be as President.
I still can't understand how she got elected to anything. She is so obviously phony and condescending, it just makes me want to spit. Oh, how I cannot stand this woman.
Dajvu all over again.
Here in the People’s Republic of New York, they love that kind of authoritarian talk.
Dajvu all over again.
Yeah, fool us once....................
there will never be a successful universal health care plan.
reason 1. countries that have such plans ration health care. the back log in some countries is months for critical procedures. some services are simply not available.
reason 2. the democraps will load the system with illegals.
reason 3. new health care “rights” will extend to more and more procedures.
reason 4. not all high tech medicine will be available to everyone due to the costs.
reason 5. every one up and down the food chain will charge more for their products and services. doctors, lawyers, supply co’s, etc.
the system is already burdened with welfare clients that over use the system. some of these women go to doctors weekly; they get dozens of prescriptions per month. a friend of mine reported to me a woman bragging at the pharmacy that it was her 21st rx for the month (the third week.) doctors give crazy women meds to get rid of them.
i saw a woman once in an apartment building that called 911. two medics arrived and three firemen. they said “ma’am we think you may have broken your little toe when you stubbed your foot on the furniture. go to a doctor tomorrow.”
Great. DMV style health care.
This person COULD win the White House,which scares the hell out of me.Here’s hoping voters will show some intelligence and vote GOP in 08 !!!
The only way Hillary could improve American Health Care is by staying as far away from as possible.
Who the h*** does she think she’s kidding!!!
Glad to see you say that. I thought it was just me.
Why doesn't she do this for the people in the great state of New York before she screws the rest of the country with it?
I couldn't stand her ever since the little cookie-baking missus and her man were running for President the first time. I sat through that entire 60 Minutes interview of the two of them. The phoniness was unbelievable. I thought surely everyone else saw it too, and we'd never see or hear from them again.
Only in communist countries would they "REQUIRE" people to "reward innovation." In a democracy, rewarding innovation is optional.
No, in a capitalistic society, innovation is rewarded by the market. Take two new diabetic drugs that came out recently, Januvia and Byetta.
Byetta works amazingly well and will continue to sell for a premium. Januvia is useless garbage that will be hitting the bargain bin soon enough.
Both are innovative. But only one really seems to work with any regularity.
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