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Media Advisory
September 18, 2007
Contact: Tim Rusch, Demos Press Office
(212) 633-1405 / press@demos.org
HOW DOES HILLARY'S HEALTH CARE PLAN SHAPE UP?
Author Jonathan Cohn Available For Interviews, Analysis
New York, NY--This week presidential candidate Senator Hillary Clinton announced her "American Health Choices Plan". Some are calling it the next HillaryCare. Is that a good or bad thing? What will this plan mean for the uninsured, small businesses and insurers?
Veteran journalist and Demos senior fellow Jonathan Cohn has the answers.
Cohn is the author of "Sick: The Untold Story of America's Health Care Crisis - and the People Who Pay the Price", published this April by HarperCollins. In the book, Cohn weaves the stories of real-life Americans with a comprehensive history of the U.S. health insurance system. He concludes with a call for universal health care, ideally modeled on some of the more successful systems abroad. The book is based on original reporting and research that spanned more than five years.
Featured on NPR's "Fresh Air" and in the pages of Newsweek, "Sick" has won acclaim from the Sunday New York Times Book Review--which made it an Editor's Choice selection--as well as the Washington Post Sunday Book Review, which called Cohn "one of America's leading experts on health care policy."
Now Cohn has turned his attention to the health care plan introduced by Clinton. Writing on The New Republic's website, where he is a senior editor, Cohn finds that Clinton's plan is less ambitious than other proposals by Democratic legislators and presidential candidates, but also substantive and ultimately workable.
Clinton recognizes the need for universal health coverage by incorporating the "individual mandate", a provision requiring that all Americans secure health coverage of some kind and that the government promises to make affordable health insurance available to everyone. It would also continue to maintain programs like Medicaid and S-Chip for low-income families.
Cohn points out that Clinton makes an important concession to small businesses, which were largely responsible for the failure of her health care initiative in 1993, by offering tax credits to small business that already provide coverage to their employees. Unlike large employers, small employers would be exempt from contributing to health care costs. Insurance companies providing coverage through a national pool would be forbidden to turn down individuals or charge them higher premiums because of pre-existing conditions.
At $110 billion per year, Cohn says that Clinton's plan would be funded by repealing part of the Bush tax cuts, requiring large employers to contribute money if they don't insure their workers, and increasing savings through modernization and improved efficiency. Clinton would also decrease government subsidies provided to private insurers through the Medicare drug benefit.
In sum, Cohn says, "Everything about the Clinton plan--from its thorough details to its well-orchestrated roll-out to its deft efforts at blunting interest-group opposition--are a reminder that this is her strength. And not a minor one to consider."
In addition to his work with Demos and The New Republic, Cohn has written for the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Washington Monthly, and Washington Post, and has appeared on numerous radio and television shows.
For publicity copies of Sick, or to book Cohn for an interview about the Clinton proposal or the health care plans of other presidential candidates, contact Timothy Rusch at (212) 633-1405 or press@demos.org. For more information on the book, visit the website WWW.SICKTHEBOOK.COM.
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