The Clinton Health-Care Reform Plan: Does it Serve the Underserved?

During the 1992 presidential campaign, Governor Clinton promised, if elected, to provide leadership from the Oval Office for sweeping, comprehensive reform of the U.S. health-care system to benefit all Americans. The President's ambitious blueprint, as outlined on September 22, 1993, falls short of th is pledge. For the majority of the nation's poor and underserved, the proposed plan insufficiently ensures universal access, social equity, comprehensiveness of benefits, affordability, and high-quality health-care services. Requiring all employers to provide, and employees to share the cost of, health-insurance coverage could decrease take-home pay for many of the working poor. In addition, the President's proposed cost-containment efforts, which include global budgetary targets and reductions in Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, could result in the elimination of over 1.0 million positions in the health-care field. These potential outcomes are alien to the President's earlier axioms to reform the U.S. health-care system, and to improve the nation's economic climate to foster the creation of more and better-paying jobs.