First Lady Hillary Clinton Works to Gather Senate Support For Her Health Care Reform Bill

The Clinton health care plan, known officially as the Health Security Act and unofficially nicknamed “Hillarycare” by its detractors, was a 1993 healthcare reform package proposed by the administration of President Bill Clinton and closely associated with the chair of the task force devising the plan, First Lady Hillary Clinton.

President Clinton had campaigned heavily on health care in the 1992 presidential election, and the task force was created in January 1993. Its goal was to come up with a comprehensive plan to provide universal health care for all Americans, which was to be a cornerstone of the administration’s first-term agenda. A major health care speech was delivered by the President to the US Congress in September 1993, and the core element of the proposed plan was an enforced mandate for employers to provide health insurance coverage to all of their employees.

Daniel Patrick Moynihan was a liberal Senator from New York, and the Clintons sought his endorsement.  Moynihan was ambivalent but in the end authored an amendment allowing companies to opt out of certain elements relating to contraception.

Typed letter signed, on White House letterhead, February 9, 1994 to Moynihan, also referencing an article in the New York Review of Books by Ron Dworkin entitled “Will Clinton’s Plan Be Fair?” “Dear Pat; I enjoyed speaking with you and Liz the other day, and appreciate the information you subsequently sent to me.  As always, I am the benefactor of your rich historical view and archives.”  She adds as a postscript, “What did you think of Ike Dworkin piece?”