Introduction
Clinton health proposal plan was formulated by a task force led by Hillary Clinton. The plan, which was over 1000pgs proposed a system for health care that catered for the health care coverage of all Americans including aliens since America was the only industrialized rich nation that lacked a universal health care that covered all its citizens.
Main body
Hillary Clinton argued that millions of Americans could not afford health care bills and at the same time the health insurance currently in use was unsustainable especially during the times of inflation. She accused the insurance companies of making incredible profits at the expense of American population (Hernandez, 2006).
This proposal however failed to pass through congress even after a twelve month heated debate that resulted to a sharp fall of its popularity from 71% to 41% with much of the opposition coming from democrats and the elderly. The plan led many to question the government’s ability to bring in the much needed health reforms because the middle class still felt left out whereas others argued that the bill gave patients few or no choice at all in deciding their choice insurance cover.
Its main components included the formulation of a national health board that was supposed to regulate the health care structure in the United States. Also the health care system was supposed to standardize health care benefits including doctors’ visits and major health problems such that US citizens could only be required to finance for themselves only the cost of additional benefits. The proposal also required all employers to finance 80% health care expenses for their employees whereas the employees catered for the remaining 20%. This also included small scale employers who however could receive credit tax refund.
Insurance companies were supposed to give all American citizens health insurance coverage and at the same time they were to set a certain amount of premiums for paying-off claims other than setting it aside as company’s profit. Moreover the insurance premiums were supposed to be affordable particularly based on the income of individual families. No American was supposed to leave his health insurance cover unless he/she was covered by another insurance health cover (Longest, 2006).
There are several rationales accredited to its fall and many of its opponents launched serious campaigns and advertisements against it including the famous Harry and Louise. For instance those who supported a nationalized health care agenda were opposed to the 80% employer sponsorship that passed on the remaining 20% to individuals and this was where the middle class still felt constrained as this still meant that they had to get into their pockets to pay health insurance.
The plan was also polarized such that to enforce it would require constant government intervention and use of force and at the same time many reforms were necessary to make the plan workable. Moreover, the presence of the first lady in the special task force was controversial. Some had problems with the first lady having in-door meeting over the same bill as this seemed to kill transparency whereas others perceived her as a private citizen with no mandate to be in the task force. Eventually the bill was voted down after a series of advertisement against it by insurance companies, conservatives and republicans.
Kindon (1984) attempts to give a policy formulation process that involves three streams, that is, problem streams, policy streams, and political streams (Boussaguet 2004). In his argument, policy making does not emanate from rational process of decision-making, policy actors always appear to formulate policy without analytically reflecting on alternatives. In the first instance, for a situation to be converted into a policy, it must be identified as a problem and as such a solution needs to be achieved or alternatives should be provided (Longest, 2006).
In the second instance, this where policy makers sit down and come up with solutions to a situation identified as a problem. Ideas are derived after an analysis of the problem. In the last instance, given policies are formulated or included as proposals of given political wings and the stage therefore occurs independent of the other two. This can be due expectation of change of a government or an election.
This streams work perfectly if all occur simultaneously though it is argued that two stream occurrences are okay but uncertainty still lingers. So like the case of the Clinton health policy, when either side argues that their approaches towards health can work best and a compromise is achieved, the policy can be classified as satisfactory.
However, such was not the case with the Clinton’s health policy; eventually the policy did not appeal to either side such that even democrats were not content with it. This happened even after democrats gave a compromise proposal whereby small scale employers were to be exempted. Some still saw the bill as too bureaucratic and many democrats attempted to give their different approaches.
Republicans regress from health insurance policies. This is therefore a case of all streams occurring independently which usually result to greater uncertainty. As some have argued policy making has little difference with how sausages are made an argument that can be said to coincide with Kindon’s views (Longest, 2006).
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Clinton health bill came at the time when Americans perceived that the democrats could handle health care more appropriately than the republicans with the republicans scoring way below 30%. However, policy formulation goes beyond any political wings expectations like in the case of Hillary Clinton’s failure to persuade Congress to pass the health care bill.
Therefore, irrespective of a party’s popularity, any US president must avoid assumptions of politically achieving a perfect universal health care system. Perhaps democrats could have performed better on this bill if they had attempted to convince the congress before hand other than using a private task force especially one holding secretive meetings with the first in it.
References
Boussaguet, et al. (2004). Streams model: Presses of Foundations National Sciences policies. Oxford: University Press.
Hernandez, R., & Pear, R. (2006). Once a Rival, Health Sector warms to Clinton. New York: The New York Times.
Hillary, Clinton. (2007). The American Health Choice Plan: Guaranteeing Affordable and Excellent Health Care for American Citizens. Web.
Longest, Jr. B. (2006). Health policymaking in the United States (4th Ed.). Chicago: Health Administration Press.