The Clinton health care plan, in its proposition, held more potential than it did in application. The plan, based upon the principles of universal coverage, consumer choice, and a backup system of cost containment,1 drew in members from both sides of the aisle on Capitol Hill, as well as hard-to-get special interest groups. However, the Clinton plan was doomed for failure, which Paul Starr attributed it to too much, too fast. Ultimately, the demise of the plan was based on two major issues in politics: time and labels.

             The Clinton health care plan began in the minds of several key democrats to address the near-crisis level of the system of the early 90s. According to an article in a September 1993 issue of The Tech, the then-current health care system left nearly 35 million Americans uninsured, and an almost equal amount with inadequate coverage. Skyrocketing drug costs, the beginnings of the HMO organization scandals, and job loss were beginning to twist together, and the Clinton administration capitalized on the winds of change. Clinton began his quest for a functioning health care system with gusto; instead of declaring a basic coverage to reach those most desperately in need, or a system to address those rapidly losing their coverage with unemployment, he proclaimed an immediate future for universal coverage.

             President Clinton based the roots for his plan on the ideological premise that health care is a right, not a privilege.2 His position paper stressed the importance of reaching those uncovered and most in need, particularly children. The plan called for Early Periodic Screenings, Diagnosis, and Treatment increases by more than 2,000 percent. Symptomatic of left-wing, big government social policy, the President had executed the same far-reaching plan in his home state of Arkansas, where, as governor, he had cut the infant mortality rate by 43 percent.3 Regardless of how politicized a policy that targets all children, like this one, is, Clinton, and initially members from both political parties, saw it as the preliminary intervention system it had the possibility to be.