Clinton Healthcare Plan

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has vowed to improve the nation’s healthcare insurance system. If elected prescient she says she would implement a universal healthcare system that would see all Americans have access to affordable health insurance. However she has learned a thing or two since taking her lumps the first time she proposed such a plan as the First Lady.

For one thing unlike her rivals John Edwards and Barack Oboma, she is not calling for a single payer healthcare system. Instead she is now in favor of a government-supported system that does give consumers choice when it comes to purchasing an affordable private health insurance plan. Tantamount to Clinton’s current approach is to ensure that reducing costs for health insurance does not result in reducing quality of care.

She intends to do this by raising standards for healthcare providers, providing greater patient education and community wellness outreach programs, and requiring health insurance companies to reward innovation. She also supports increased physician accreditation programs that keep doctors updated with sate-of –the-art treatments and techniques. In addition she wants to see an increase in the level of reimbursements Medicare pays doctors. She also wants to allocate at least 300 million dollars to expand in nursing school enrollment and develop programs in mentoring for nursing professionals.

Mrs. Clinton feels that patients too need to take a more active role in bettering the healthcare they receive, and in reducing costs. At a recent speech in New Hampshire, she said she would like to see that states Dartmouth-Hitchcock's Center for Shared Decision Making, serve as a model for patient education throughout the nation.

Clinton wants to se an overhaul of health insurance reimbursement practices that do not encourage physicians to collaborate and work in teams. Her plan also calls for an expansion of existing programs like Medicare, and she would also like to see people be able to take part in the low cost health insurance plans provided to federal employees.

Another unique aspect of her proposal, Senator Clinton wants to open up the health insurance market across state lines, making a true free market for health insurance. She says the free market approach to affordable health insurance has not really been given a chance because there is no ability to shop across state lines. The Internet has become a fabulous tool for consumers to look for affordable health insurance products, but unlike any other product or service they may be looking for online, they cannot shop the entire country for the best deal. She would like to change that, "There is no really strong argument anymore why you couldn't get better deals by buy insurance across state lines…”