What A Party, by Terry McAuliffe: on Health Care


Bill Clinton: 1990s plan: affordable, competitive, universal healthcare

The Clintons' plan was nothing revolutionary. The idea was just to make health care universal, make it affordable, make it more competitive, and improve the quality. If different insurance companies had to offer the same benefits and compete on quality, the result would be better, cheaper health care. That was a worthy goal, but the administration made some mistakes in its communication strategy, and the press twisted everything they were doing way out of proportion. We were all learning lessons about how effective some people could be at manipulating the press.

"I didn't get that," Hillary says now. I read these newspapers. I sort of figured that what we read was a fact. I was shocked to find out otherwise."

Source: What A Party!, by Terry McAuliffe, p. 91 Jan 23, 2007

Terry McAuliffe: 37 million uninsured is not fair

In 1993, Clinton announced the President's Task Force on National Health Care Reform with the First Lady as chair. He declared that the administration would push to control health-care costs and provide health care to everyone. Unwisely, as we now know, he also vowed to present his plan for health-care reform to Congress within 100 days.

"Do you want socialized medicine?" the anesthesiologist asked me, his voice rising.

"Of course not," I said. "However, there are 37 million uninsured people in this country with no access to health care. Is that fair?"

Source: What A Party!, by Terry McAuliffe, p. 87-88 Jan 23, 2007

  • The above quotations are from What A Party!
    My Life Among Democrats: Presidents, Candidates, Donors, Activists, Alligators, and Other Wild Animals
    by Terry McAuliffe.
  • Click here for definitions & background information on Health Care.
  • Click here for other issues (main summary page).
  • Click here for more quotes by Terry McAuliffe on Health Care.
  • Click here for more quotes by Bill Clinton on Health Care.
Candidates and political leaders on Health Care:

Retired Senate as of Jan. 2015:
GA:Chambliss(R)
IA:Harkin(D)
MI:Levin(D)
MT:Baucus(D)
NE:Johanns(R)
OK:Coburn(R)
SD:Johnson(D)
WV:Rockefeller(D)

Resigned from 113th House:
AL-1:Jo Bonner(R)
FL-19:Trey Radel(R)
LA-5:Rod Alexander(R)
MA-5:Ed Markey(D)
MO-9:Jo Ann Emerson(R)
NC-12:Melvin Watt(D)
SC-1:Tim Scott(R) 		Retired House to run for Senate or Governor:
AR-4:Tom Cotton(R)
GA-1:Jack Kingston(R)
GA-10:Paul Broun(R)
GA-11:Phil Gingrey(R)
HI-1:Colleen Hanabusa(D)
IA-1:Bruce Braley(D)
LA-6:Bill Cassidy(R)
ME-2:Mike Michaud(D)
MI-14:Gary Peters(D)
MT-0:Steve Daines(R)
OK-5:James Lankford(R)
PA-13:Allyson Schwartz(D)
TX-36:Steve Stockman(R)
WV-2:Shelley Capito(R) 		Retired House as of Jan. 2015:
AL-6:Spencer Bachus(R)
AR-2:Tim Griffin(R)
CA-11:George Miller(D)
CA-25:Howard McKeon(R)
CA-33:Henry Waxman(D)
CA-45:John Campbell(R)
IA-3:Tom Latham(R)
MN-6:Michele Bachmann(R)
NC-6:Howard Coble(R)
NC-7:Mike McIntyre(D)
NJ-3:Jon Runyan(R)
NY-4:Carolyn McCarthy(D)
NY-21:Bill Owens(D)
PA-6:Jim Gerlach(R)
UT-4:Jim Matheson(D)
VA-8:Jim Moran(D)
VA-10:Frank Wolf(R)
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Page last updated: Feb 26, 2019