Hillary Clinton
In response to CWA's questionnaire, Hillary Rodham Clinton said the following about health care:
I’m going to provide universal health care -- quality, affordable coverage for every single American. And I think we can do it by spending our health care dollars more wisely. While we must make an initial investment, I believe that over the long term we can save money with the right efforts to emphasize prevention and lower costs. Right now, we spend more than any other country in the world on health care – $2 trillion – without seeing the results. I believe we can better spend that money more efficiently and still cover our nation’s uninsured. And I believe we can invest more wisely and get better outcomes than we are.
That’s why I’ve begun by addressing one of the most difficult challenges – cost. I proposed a series of initiatives – a 7-point plan – that would reduce health care costs by $120 billion a year. So, yes, we will need some up-front investments, but I am confident that we will be able to modernize our health system, make it more efficient and responsive to the patient, achieve savings, AND cover all Americans.
I’ve been fighting for health care for 15 years, and I’m fighting for it right now. I’m fighting the President, who has threatened to veto our bipartisan efforts to expand our children’s health insurance program to reach some of the 9 million children in this country who don’t have health insurance.
I am committed to ensuring that every single American has health care, and it will be my top domestic priority as President. Right now, there are parents who are forced to choose between health care for themselves or for their children, because they can’t afford both; small businesses are forced to choose between giving up their insurance plans and laying people off. And wouldn’t it be nice if healthcare wasn’t the biggest impediment to successfully negotiating a decent contract with your employers? It’s long past time we got this done.
It is a disgrace that 47 million people have no health insurance in this country. This country is ready for universal health care, and I’m ready to make it happen.