6/2/2013
HCA-255

In 1993 President Bill Clinton attempted to enforce The Health Security Act. His efforts to bring universal health care coverage to the United States is one that nearly ended his presidency. The intention of the President was to enhance the healthcare system and to provide universal health care coverage to Americans much like that of almost all other industrialized countries. The Health Security Plan, however, failed. There were both good and bad aspects of the plan but ultimately it was too flawed to even come before congress for a vote. President Clinton had the best of intentions when he attempted health care reform, he wanted to provide universal health care coverage with cost control. He felt that all Americans deserved health insurance and that inflation was skyrocketing and making health care unaffordable and unattainable for many Americans.The core element of the Health Security Plan were to enforce a mandate that requires all employers to provide health insurance coverage to all employees. Besides universal coverage and a basic benefit package, provisions included health insurance reform, regional alliances for structuring competition among health insurance plans, consumer choice of health plans, and provisions for Medicaid beneficiaries. Proposed mental health and substance abuse provisions included coverage of intensive nonresidential services, medical management, evaluation and assessment services, and case management. Initial limitations on coverage of inpatient mental health services and psychotherapy would be removed by 2001.(Plaut & Arons) The Health Security Plan had many flaws. It was argued that the health care reform plan was too large and too complex.(Piffner) The American public was skeptical of healthcare reform and campaigning against the bill relied on those insecurities. The public feared that the bill would