Healthcare Industry News > Governor Schwarzenegger and Hillary Clinton promoting struggling to promote the idea of mandating health insurance
Governor Schwarzenegger and Hillary Clinton promoting struggling to promote the idea of mandating health insurance California's Republican Governor Schwarzenegger and Democratic presidential candidate New York Senator Hillary Clinton have something in common. Both are struggling to promote the idea of mandating health insurance. While Clinton attacks Illinois Senator Obama for not mandating insurance in his plan, labor unions and other liberal groups have spoken out against Schwarzenegger's plan because it would make people buy insurance but would not guarantee the affordability of insurance.Carmen Balber from the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights explains that by putting some type of cap on what insurance companies can charge, a mandate essentially becomes "an unlimited burden on individuals." Plus, it could spell a "bonanza for private health insurance providers." She continues by explaining the mandate would give these insurance companies guaranteed customers so they could essentially charge whatever they wanted. Senator Obama has made similar points against mandates. Clinton argues that only through mandates can prices be lowered. The mandates will force healthy people to sign up for policies thus offsetting the extra costs associated with less healthy people who insurance companies will be required to insure. She also has suggested capping premiums to a certain percentage of a family's income but has released no concrete numbers about what that cap might be.
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