Sen. Clinton's health care reform

Senator Clinton’s agenda to lower health care cost and improve health care for Americans is the first part of her plan for health reform.

Since 2004 Clinton was heavily involved with health reform. She will build off her previous work to lower costs by modernizing our nation's health care infrastructure.

Currently, Clinton does not have a full universal health care plan. However her plan will consist of three parts: lowering costs, improving quality and making sure everyone is insured which she describes as a "moral imperative".

I will share with you Clinton’s 7 step strategy which addresses lowering cost

A national prevention initiative to reduce the incidence of such diseases as diabetes and cancer that impose huge human and financial costs (The goal is to focus on prevention: wellness not sickness. Clinton plans on incentivising insurers by requiring those that deal with federal employee healthcare to bring in preventive strategies.)

Institute a new "paperless" health information technology system (Use more computer technology: to increase security and accessibility of records, reduce costs and errors, and share research. According to Sen. Clinton, if all hospitals used a computerized physician order entry system, an estimated 200,000 fewer adverse drug events would occur, saving roughly 1 billion dollars per year.)

Transform care of today’s chronically ill population to improve outcomes and decrease costs ending insurance discrimination to help reduce administrative costs. (The bottom line to this strategy point is to co-ordinate and streamline the care of chronically ill patients. The cost of caring for this patient population accounts for 75 per cent of national healthcare spend.)

Create an independent "best practices" institute to empower consumers, providers and health plans to make the right care choices (Improve the quality of care to help drive down costs. Clinton envisages the institute being "apartnership among the public and the private sector, to finance comparative effectiveness research, so that doctors, nurses and other health professionals, as well as consumers and businesses, would know what drugs, devices, surgeries and treatments work best".)

Implement smart purchasing initiatives to constrain excess prescription drug and managed care expenditures. (The goal is to get prescription drug costs under control. Americans pay the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs; and yet in most instances the research and development of those same drugs was carried out and funded in America. An important part of the solution would be to allow Medicare to negotiate for lower drug prices, to allow importation of cheaper drugs, and generics.)

End insurance discrimination to help reduce administrative cost. (Offer individuals and small businesses market access to larger insurance pools. Clinton thinks this part of the plan is to lower costs and end insurance company discrimination against people with pre-existing conditions. This means that people with pre-existing conditions would be offered insurance on a par with others. This would prohibit insurance companies from carving out benefits or charging higher rates to people with health problems. This would help people in terms of debt as well. Most Americans are heavy in debt due to medical bills because they don’t have insurance to pay for medical expenses.)

Put in place common-sense medical malpractice. (Reform medical malpractice in a way that works for doctors and patients alike. Clinton offers one already in use called the National Medical Error Disclosure and Compensation (MEDiC) Act. This program has been used successfully at the University of Michigan Hospital system.)

Senator Clinton states there her proposal would reduce costs and improve quality in the health care system. if the 7-step strategy were implemented they would lower national health spending by at least $120 billion dollars a year. Since this is not the entire plan, Clinton has not stated how much this plan will cost. This strategy is only addressing the savings that will be realized. However, Clinton has stated that the money save from the waste we eliminate and the way we change how we care for people should be used to help finance coverage for the 45 million Americans who have no insurance. If businesses received a proportionate reduction in their health benefits spending, they would achieve at least $25 billion in savings. All of these savings would be reinvested in the system to help cover the 45 million uninsured.