Quote:
CHIP is an important item on Clinton’s brag list because it reframes her greatest disappointment as first lady. “Hillarycare,” her 1993 effort to secure universal health care for all Americans, was a high-profile failure. But out of the ashes of that fracas came this smaller victory: a plan for the government to help children without health insurance.
Although there are questions about Clinton’s contributions to CHIP, there is no doubt that the program itself has been seen as a tremendous, bipartisan success. Not only did it accomplish its goal of extending health insurance to millions of children, but it demonstrated a policy idea that would later play a key role in President Obama's Affordable Care Act.
Now, research says that Americans got an even better deal with CHIP than they thought. Gareth Olds, an economist at Harvard Business School, says that CHIP has had a fascinating side effect on the broader economy. By giving families peace of mind, by assuring they could afford health care for their children no matter what, CHIP encouraged more people to start their own businesses, Olds says.
Take that, conservative nabobs of negativity!
