Tag Archives: first ladies

1993: Bill Clinton assigns Hillary to figure out how to reform health care.  She comes up with a plan that gets everyone on to some kind of private plan, no mention of a public option.  The public revolts against her and I got the feeling it was much because the public felt she overstepped her boundaries as a first lady, but that would be just my interpretation.  She was treated horrifically by Republicans – just horribly – and everyone abandoned the idea.  It was so ridiculous that the guy that ran against Hillary Clinton for Senate the first time around – about 8 years later – actually used it as his main campaign slogan – something like “and you know how she screwed up that health care plan”.

Well you know what?  In 2005, Congress passed prescription coverage for Medicare beneficiaries without funding it.  But the interesting part about that plan?  It was the EXACT model that Hillary Clinton came up with for the entire health care system in 1993.  Why did nobody notice?  Probably because nobody was still in the news that could have made the connection between the two.  I receive Medicare, so I realized how it was working and remembered it sounded exactly like the 1993 Clinton plan.

This is Clinton’s speech on health care on September 22, 1993, 8 months into his first year of office: