Organizing for America

Fact Check: Clinton Opposed an Individual Mandate in 1993

The Individual Mandate Hillary Clinton Opposed in 1993 Is the Same Individual Mandate She Supports Now. "Hillary Clinton has now introduced Health Care 2.0, and - lo and behold! - it is a direct descendant of the plan she chose not to support in 1993...[In an interview] Clinton said the models for her current proposal were the 1993 Republican plan and the individual-mandate plan passed in Massachusetts by former Governor Mitt Romney. She said one of her top health care advisers, Laurie Rubiner, worked on both the Chafee and Massachusetts plans." The article noted that supporting an individual mandate is "a big change for the Clintonistas," since in 1993, Clinton "railed" against individual mandates. [Time, 9/20/07]

FLASHBACK: 1993

Hillary Clinton Said That An Individual Mandate For Health Insurance Coverage Would "Create Additional Problems," Lead to Arbitrary Cut-Offs for Eligibility, And Require the IRS to Oversee Our Health Care System. In a speech to the Group Health Association of America, Clinton said that "The individual mandate...create[s] some additional problems, at least as we analyze them. It makes it very difficult to determine and monitor who is in the system and who is out. It would require tracking individuals as they move in and out of jobs, as they move in and out of the insurance market. And it would mean, if you provided a subsidy scheme to support low-wage individuals, a determination as to when their income reached some arbitrary level as to what kind of subsidy they would still be entitled to. It would require, in our view, the IRS to engage in an enormous administrative oversight of our health care system." [Speech to the Group Health Association of America, 2/15/94]

Clinton Said An Individual Mandate Might Not Work; Pointed to Example of Mandatory Auto Insurance. In her speech to the Group Health Association of America, Clinton pointed to mandatory auto insurance requirements as a reason why the individual mandate might not work. She said, "[T]he only examples we have of individual mandates are those like auto insurance requirements in many states where, in spite of the fact that the state has access to all drivers through the licensing process, literally thousands and even hundreds of thousands of drivers remain uninsured in states with such an individual mandate." [Speech to the Group Health Association of America, 2/15/94]

Hillary Clinton Said She Opposed an Individual Mandate Because It Would Disrupt Employment Patterns. Clinton said, "We concluded that amongst the alternatives that are available, which include either a very large tax that would replace private sector investment, or an individual mandate which would put the entire responsibility on the individual, and we are concerned disrupt employment patterns now, particularly those that provide insurance, that therefore the best way is to take what we know, what Americans are familiar with, and make it better, make it fairer and make everyone within it responsible." [CNN, 9/29/93]

Hillary Clinton Said She Opposed an Individual Mandate Because Employers Would Stop Insuring, Knowing That People Would Fall Into the Subsidy Pool. Clinton said, "Although we very much applaud the Senate Republican approach of making sure we reach universal coverage and choosing an individual mandate as the route to get there, we have several worries that we will be working with the Senate Republicans on to make sure we fully understand their approach over the next several weeks. Among those worries are that if we have a legislatively required individual mandate, we worry that the numbers of people who currently are insured through their employment will decrease, because there will no longer be any reason for many employers who have struggled to ensure their workers, particularly those whose incomes are not significant, to feel that responsibility, because by failing to insure, the individuals will be mandated to have insurance, and individuals below a certain level of income will become the government's responsibility. They will fall into the subsidy pool. It's very to predict how many or at what rate that would possibly increase the number of uninsured, but we worry that that would be one of the unintended consequences." [Hearing Of The Senate Finance Committee, 9/30/93]

Hillary Clinton Said She Opposed an Individual Mandate Because It would be Difficult to Administer the Bureaucratic System. Clinton said, "Unlike the existing employer-employee system, we have great concerns about how the administrative structure to track the individual contribution, to collect it, and to then connect it with health insurance would be set up. In our efforts to try to work with Treasury, and OMB and others to create that individual subsidy system, it struck us as extremely complicated and bureaucratic, and also maybe more intrusive, because instead of the employer-employee transaction, with the money coming in, individuals would have to perhaps show their income tax returns, they'd have to have their income tracked because they would either be up or below the subsidy level at certain periods or certain years. So we believe it would be much more difficult to administer the individual mandate system." [Hearing Of The Senate Finance Committee, 9/30/93]

NPR: Clinton White House Opposed Individual Mandate Because of "Overwhelming Public Distaste." Mara Liasson reported, "The White House is betting that if universal coverage can be established as non-negotiable by all parties, then the debate becomes which mandate- individual or employer, can best achieve it. Then the White House figures the overwhelming public distaste for an individual mandate will help it win the argument. To that end, the first lady has declared another plan, the one proposed by conservative Democrat Jim Cooper, unacceptable. As Cooper explains, his plan doesn't require individuals or employers to buy health care and it sees universal coverage as something that will have to wait." [NPR, 11/20/93]