From Obama Spokesman Bill Burton

“Another day, another desperate attack. Demonizing anyone who doesn’t share her exact plans on health care is exactly why Hillary Clinton flunked the opportunity she had to pass universal health care in 1993. The truth is, Barack Obama’s universal health care plan makes coverage affordable for every single American, he just doesn’t agree with Hillary’s plan to start by forcing everyone to buy insurance they can’t afford.”

Fact Check: Clinton’s False Attack on Obama’s Health Care Plan

CLINTON ATTACK: “He has called his plan universal, then he called it ‘virtually universal,’ but it simply does not deserve the label,” said the New York senator. “When it comes to truth in labeling, his plan simply flunks the test.” [CNN, 11/28/07]

Hillary Clinton: “We Are All In Favor Of Universal Health Care.” Hillary Clinton said, “We are all in favor of universal health care.” [YearlyKos Debate, 6:00, 8/4/07]

REALITY: Washington Post Wrote It Would Be Hard To Find Anyone Not Covered By Obama’s Plan, Because It’s Not Clear They Exist
Washington Post: “It Could Be A Struggle For Clinton To Find Someone Who Wants Health Insurance But Doesn’t Qualify Under The Obama Plan, Because It’s Not Clear Such A Person Exists.” The Washington Post reported, “For people who want to get health insurance and make an effort to do so, Clinton and Obama have almost exactly the same plan: increasing the number of poor who can qualify for Medicaid, offering tax credits or subsidies for people who need help paying their health care bills and requiring insurance companies to offer everyone coverage, with the government subsidizing those who can’t pay the full amount. So the 15 million people without insurance under Obama’s plan would be a combination of relatively well-off people who choose not to purchase health insurance and people who qualify for public programs like Medicaid who don’t sign up. It could be a struggle for Clinton to find someone who wants health insurance but doesn’t qualify under the Obama plan, because it’s not clear such a person exists.” [Washington Post, 11/28/07 ]

REALITY: Clinton Campaign Advisor Said Their Health Care Plan Was Not Universal
Clinton Campaign Health Care Adviser: Clinton’s Health Care Plan Will Not Include Everybody. “The truth is that neither the Obama plan, nor the Clinton plan, guarantees ‘universal coverage’ for all Americans, although they both aspire to this goal. Let’s look at the Clinton plan first. MIT economics professor Jonathan Gruber, one of Clinton’s health care advisers, describes her plan as a ‘universal coverage’ plan, in contrast to the Obama plan, which he terms a ‘universal access’ plan. But he also acknowledges that the Clinton plan will not include everybody. ‘Any system that does not have a single payer will not have 100 per cent coverage,’ he told me, when I reached him after the Las Vegas debate. ‘But you can come very close.’ … The system proposed by Clinton is more analogous to the government-subsidized private insurance system in the Netherlands, where roughly one and a half per cent of the population is estimated to fall through the cracks.” [Washington Post Fact Checker, 11/19/07 ]

REALITY: Analysts Say Clinton Plan Won’t Cover Everyone
Harvard Program On Public Opinion And Health And Social Policy’s Robert Blendon: Clinton’s Health Care Plan Isn’t Going To Cover Everybody; Preliminary Data From Massachusetts Shows That People Would Rather Remain Uninsured That Purchase A Stripped Down Plan. “Robert Blendon, director of the Harvard Program on Public Opinion and Health and Social Policy, estimates Obama’s plan would end up covering 5 percent to 10 percent fewer individuals than Clinton’s. But that’s assuming that it’s possible for Clinton to require everyone to purchase insurance. Blendon suspects that it isn’t. ‘At the end of the day,’ he tells FactCheck.org, ‘it’s not going to be everybody. We have no idea what the actual falloff would be.’ … Preliminary data from Massachusetts, which implemented a sweeping health insurance plan last year, is showing that many people would rather remain uninsured than purchase a stripped-down plan. ‘People always say having some insurance is better than no insurance,’ Blendon says. ‘It turns out, in some of the focus groups in Massachusetts, people don’t believe that.’” [FactCheck.org, 11/16/07 ]

Urban Institute’s John Holohan: Clinton’s Plan Won’t Eliminate The Problem Of Uninsured Altogether. John Holohan, the author of a study conducted at the Urban Institute, a Washington-based think tank, that gamed out various different models for health care reform in Massachusetts several years ago, does not believe that either the Clinton or the Obama plan will eliminate the problem of the uninsured altogether. “We would all be very happy if we got down to one and a half per cent,” he said. [Washington Post Fact Checker, 11/19/07]

REALITY: Obama Has Been Fighting For Universal Health Care For His Entire Time In Public Life
Obama Vows To Push Universal Health Care. Chicago Tribune reported, “Armed with impressive, if purely symbolic referendum results, proponents of universal health care are preparing to take their “Bernardin Amendment” back to Springfield for a practical test next year. An overwhelming 83 percent of voters in Cook County approved an advisory version of the amendment Tuesday, calling for a guarantee of universal health care in the state constitution by the year 2000. Organizers also plan to replicate Tuesday’s symbolic triumph, putting the question before voters as a non-binding referendum in other counties, towns, even school districts. State Sen. Barack Obama (D-Chicago) added that efforts would begin immediately to develop a specific program for universal health care to accompany the broadly worded amendment.” [Chicago Tribune, 11/5/98]

Obama Said “We’re Not Ambitious Enough” On Health Care, “You Don’t Give Up On The Goal Of Universal Health Care Because…People Need Universal Health Care.” New York Magazine reported, “‘There are times I think we’re not ambitious enough,’ Obama says. ‘I remember back in 2004, one of the candidates had made a proposal about universal health care, and some DLC-type commentator said, ‘We can’t propose this kind of big-government costly program, because it’ll send a signal we’re tax-and-spend liberals.’ But that’s not a good reason to not do something. You don’t give up on the goal of universal health care because you don’t want to be tagged as a liberal. People need universal health care.’” [New York Magazine, 10/2/06]

Obama Said He Will Sign Universal Health Care By The End Of His First Term. In a speech, Obama said, “When I am president, I will sign a universal health care law by the end of my first term. My plan will cover the uninsured by letting people buy into the same kind of health care plan that members of Congress give themselves. It will bring down costs by investing in information technology, and preventative care, and by stopping the drug companies from price-gouging when patients need their medicine. It will help business and families shoulder the burden of catastrophic care so that an illness doesn’t lead to a bankruptcy. And it will save the average family a thousand dollars a year on their premiums. We can do this.” [Obama Speech, 5/2/07]

CLINTON ATTACK: Health Care Experts Favor Mandate
REALITY: Clinton Plan Is Largely Based On The One In Massachusetts, Where One In Five Are Exempt From Mandate
One In Five Uninsured In Massachusetts Will Be Exempt From The Mandate, Individual Mandate Would Only Apply To “Those Who Can Afford The Premiums.” The Boston Globe reported, “Interestingly, the Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority, the bureaucrats in charge of implementing the plan, decided that the universal individual mandate does not apply to everyone, but rather only those who can afford the premiums. Therefore, nearly one in five of the currently uninsured will be exempt from the law.” [Boston Globe, 5/15/07 ]

New York Times: If Massachusetts Can’t Achieve Universal Coverage With An Enforceable Mandate, How Can Hillary Clinton Do It Without One? ‘A year after Massachusetts became the only state to require that individuals have health coverage, residents face deadlines to either sign up or lose their personal tax exemption, worth $219 on next year’s state income tax returns. More than 200,000 previously uninsured residents have enrolled, but state officials estimate that at least that number, and perhaps twice as many, have not. Those managing the enrollment effort say it has exceeded expectations. In particular, state-subsidized insurance packages offered to low-income residents have been so popular that the program’s spending may exceed its budget by nearly $150 million. But the reluctance of so many to enroll, along with the possible exemption of 60,000 residents who cannot afford premiums, has raised questions about whether even a mandate can guarantee truly universal coverage.’ [New York Times, 11/25/07]

Key Elements Of Clinton’s Health Care Plan Are Similar To Plan Signed By Romney In Mass. Key elements of Hillary Clinton’s healthcare proposal are strikingly similar to the tenets of the health overhaul that Mitt Romney signed into law in Massachusetts last year. But you would never guess it from the broadsides he hurled yesterday against what he called “Hillarycare 2.0” and described as “a European-style socialized medicine plan. … But the central premise of Clinton’s plan - an ‘individual mandate’ requiring that every American have health insurance - is precisely what Romney proposed in the Bay State, in what was seen as a bold approach to attaining universal coverage.” [Boston Globe, 9/18/07]

Ø When Mandate Went Into Effect In Massachusetts Only 1/3 Of Uninsured Got Coverage And Most Of Those Qualified For Free Or State Subsidized Insurance. Only 130,000 people, or about a third of those who were uninsured in 2006, were insured on the day the Massachusetts mandate for health insurance took effect. And most of those who signed up were poor enough to qualify for free or state-subsidized insurance. [New York Times, 6/30/07]

Ø People Who Must Pay The Full Cost Of Insurance Themselves Are Not All Rushing To Get Coverage Despite Mandate. According to the New York Times, “People who must pay the full cost themselves, who are crucial to the success of the nation’s most ambitious effort to achieve near-universal coverage, may now be a majority of the state’s uninsured and not all are rushing to get coverage. Many of them are healthy young people in their 20’s and 30’s, state officials say.” [New York Times, 6/30/07]
CLINTON ATTACK: Obama’s Illinois Health Care Task Force Concluded Universal Coverage Was Not Possible Without Mandate
REALITY: Obama’s Bill Commissioned A Study; A Final Study Won’t Be Complete Until 2009
Obama Passed Health Care Justice Act To Study Ways to Implement a Universal Health Care System for Illinois, Calling Universal Care a Goal. In 2004, Obama was chief sponsor of bill creating the Health Care Justice Act, which stated that it was “a policy goal of the State of Illinois to insure that all residents have access to quality health care at costs that are affordable.” The bill “strongly encouraged” the State of Illinois to implement a health care access plan that would: 1) Provides access to a full range of preventive, acute and long-term health care services; 2) Maintains and improves the quality of health care services offered to IL residents; 3) Provides portability of coverage regardless of employment status; 4) Provides core benefits for all IL residents; 4) Encourages regional and local consumer participation; 5) Contains cost-containment measures.” The Journal Register wrote the bill was “amended to make full access to health care a goal instead of a policy and to strongly encourage, instead of require, the state to implement a health-care access plan.” [93rd GA, HB 2268, 5/19/04, 3R P; 31-26-1, PA 93-0973, 8/20/04; 93rd GA, SB 2581, 3/24/04, Senate Placed on Calendar Order of 3R 3/25/04; Lexington Herald Leader (Kentucky), 1/18/07; State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL), 6/15/04]

Ø Health Care Justice Act Itself Did Not Propose A Specific Plan. The Chicago Tribune reported, “A bill in Illinois, called the Health Care Justice Act, proposes that the state implement a plan to give people access to a full range of health care by July 1, 2007. The legislation does not put specific requirements on businesses now, but sets a goal of universal coverage by 2007. Businesses could ultimately be required to pay a hefty portion as universal coverage is implemented. Although the legislation has cleared the House and supporters expect it to soon pass in the Senate, people don’t agree on what it is expected to achieve. Jim Duffett, executive director at the Campaign for Better Health Care in Illinois, said the bill’s mandate is to achieve universal health care, though how that will be achieved is yet to be determined.” [Chicago Tribune, 3/22/04]

Illinois Governor Will Appoint a Task Force to Decide On a State-Level Individual Mandate by 2009. “By 2009, a task force appointed by the governor will make a recommendation to the General Assembly on whether to require individuals to purchase health insurance. The task force must consider how an individual mandate would affect health care costs, access, affordability, and quality of care. If the number of uninsured residents is 500,000 or more in 2010, the General Assembly must consider the task force’s recommendation.” [Kaiser Family Foundation]