Hillary's healthcare plan
Linda Chavez

Linda Chavez is the author of "An Unlikely Conservative: The Transformation of an Ex-Liberal" and a columnist with Creators Syndicate.

Hillary Clinton has spent years trying to erase the memory of her failed attempt to bring socialized medicine to the United States, but the ghost of Hillary Care is lurking in the wings again as last week she unveiled her new plan to overhaul the nation's health system. Touted as an "American Health Choices Plan," Sen. Clinton's proposal is short on choice but full of government mandates, including a new directive that every American purchase health insurance.

Clinton makes it sound as if we are facing a health care crisis, one that only government can solve. But what exactly is the problem?

Advocates of universal health coverage like to trot out the statistic that 46 million Americans lack healthcare coverage, a number based on Census data from 2005. But the figure is misleading.

Most people, upon hearing that so many Americans lack health insurance, automatically assume it is because they can't afford it, but the Census study shows more than 17 million of those uninsured earn more than $50,000 a year, including almost 9 million who make over $75,000 a year. Some of these are, no doubt, self-employed, healthy and young, which is why they choose not to buy health insurance.

Since there are few options for catastrophic coverage - the kind that will take care of your bills if you're injured in a car crash or suddenly get cancer - many Americans opt not to spend the money on expensive health insurance, just as many people choose not to buy life insurance. Does it make sense to force them to do so? What's more, nearly half the 46 million uninsured remain so for only a brief time. Many are between jobs and choose not to pay the premiums for continued coverage available by an employer-provided health plan if they lose or quit their jobs.

Of the remaining uninsured, 10 million are non-citizens, including an unknown number of illegal aliens.

So, when the numbers are dissected, the health care "crisis" comes down to fewer than 10 million Americans who lack long-term access to healthcare coverage. Yet Hillary Clinton wants to dramatically change the way the rest of us receive our health care.

Clinton's plan would force insurers to offer coverage at the same rates to everyone: smokers would pay no more than non-smokers; drug addicts and alcoholics would receive the same rates as the abstemious; obese people would pay the same as the physically fit - even though all these behaviors affect health and can be avoided. The consequence would be higher rates for those who choose to behave responsibly.

To pay for the estimated $110 billion cost of the new Hillary Care, Clinton would raise taxes. First, she'd wipe out most of the Bush tax cuts, and then she'd tax employer-provided healthcare plans themselves for those she deems "rich."

Clinton likened her plan of forcing all individuals to purchase health insurance to some states' requirement that drivers maintain insurance in case they injure someone in an accident. But the comparison couldn't be farther off the mark. Car and property insurance don't cover routine maintenance, and premiums are tied to actual risk. You don't submit claims to your car insurer for tune-ups or brake repairs or to your home insurer for painting your house or putting on a new roof. And your premiums depend on whether you are a good driver and how much your house is worth.

But most people expect their health insurance to pay at least a portion of the cost of doctor visits for routine care, and they don't want to pay more if they choose unhealthy lifestyles.

We do need a new system - one that rewards individual efforts to stay healthy and provides incentives to get regular, prophylactic care. But Hillary's plan doesn't come close to doing that and will only result in higher taxes and rationed health care.