Internal Critique of Hillary care from the 90's

A Critique of Our Plan
We will inevitaply be accus~d of creating a monstro\lsly
complicated proP9sal,and it will take an enormous effort to
communicate the eS$entials in a siIllPle way.
J3l,ltthe i$sue is not j\lS~ communication. There is more
regul9tion in this p19n th9t I expected to see, and I worry about
the wisdom of much of it. The spirit and $ome of the substance
600tradict the idea of flexibility fOr states and room for
variety,inoovation, aod competition~
l:n part, we can answer such criticism by turning propo$ed
rules for the entire national program into rules that states are
allowed to adopt, or py indicating that specific details are
meant to show how the system might work, not how it would have to
work.
ij9wever, the most heav¥-handed part Of the program ~s the
budge~, and we IIla¥ not have any credible way 9f making it mOre
palatable~ It ha$ now pecoIlle a centerpiece of the new system, not
a backup» and ¥e1:: nope of U$ ~pows .• whether we can make i~ work
well or at all, or Whether the public would tolerate re$trictions
on $0 much private $pending.
I oan think of paral).eJ,.s in wartime, b\ltI have trouble
coming up with 9 precedent ip our Peacetime hist9ryfor .$uch
broad and centralized control over a sector of the econo~y~ Is
the p\lPlic really ready fOr this? the P91ls all $hOW people think
w~ should be spendiI').g mOre mone¥ on hei;:lJ,.th care; of CO\lrse,
pe<:.W1e don't see how. m\lch health care is costing .them. B.\lt,
whateve.r the Ci;:luse, the foundati~n in public opinion rna¥' not
exist for as rigid a budget on health expenditures as this wO\lld
be. Aod. if we are too far out fron~pf public 9pinion,we won ' t
find sUPP9rt for the r~$tof 0\lr plan. O\lr oppopentsw:i.ll
characterize this as rati9ning--90d th9t charge won't be ea$y to
answer.
My feeling now is that the bUdget should bea bac~up,
enforceable onlY if after some period other mechanisms fail. It
C9\lld·b~ $tructured like. mandatory controls during the pha$e-in
period--with a second trigger.
In other areas, we would benefit by a change in tone as well
as substance.
Nowhere in the discussion of regional alliances i$ there a
clear statement that, except in single-payer states, it is the
respoosibility of the alliances to encourage choice and
1

http://www.judicialwatch.org/files/2007/0108HRCHealthcareCritique_0.pdf

 

Another memorandum from Rockerfeller:
A “Confidential” May 26, 1993 Memorandum from Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) to Hillary Clinton entitled, “Health Care Reform Communications,” which criticizes the Task Force as a “secret cabal of Washington policy ‘wonks’” that has engaged in “choking off information” from the public regarding health care reform. The memorandum suggests that Hillary Clinton “use classic opposition research” to attack those who were excluded by the Clinton Administration from Task Force deliberations and to “expose lifestyles, tactics and motives of lobbyists” in order to deflect criticism. Senator Rockefeller also suggested news organizations “are anxious and willing to receive guidance [from the Clinton Administration] on how to time and shape their [news] coverage.”

http://www.judicialwatch.org/files/2007/0108HRCHealthcareRockefeller_0.pdf