From expanding health care access for National Guard members and reservists as Senator, to increasing health care coverage for millions of children through the creation of SCHIP as First Lady, to expanding rural health care access as the First Lady of Arkansas, Hillary Clinton’s strong and expansive record on health care speaks for itself.
This Republican attack is just another desperate and ineffective attempt by the right wing to distract from Hillary Clinton’s long record of supporting working families.
As Senator, Hillary Clinton worked with the GOP to expand health care for National Guard members and reservists. According to McClatchy, then-Senator Clinton worked with Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C) to “to provide full military health benefits to reservists and National Guard members.” A statement from Graham’s senate office said, “Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) today announced that the Department of Defense Authorization bill conference report finalized today includes an amendment that will improve TRICARE benefits for National Guard members and Reservists, allowing all members of the Selected Reserve and their families to enroll in TRICARE with an across the board cost-sharing of 28 percent. Today’s victory builds on the Senators’ longstanding commitment to ensuring that members of our National Guard and Reserve and their families have access to the health care benefits they need and deserve.”
As First Lady of the United States, Hillary Clinton helped create SCHIP which has provided health care to millions of children. As First Lady, Clinton worked to create the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which increased coverage for children in low income and working families. As FactCheck.org wrote in 2008, “[Hillary] deserves plenty of credit, both for the passage of the SCHIP legislation and for pushing outreach efforts to translate the law into reality.” And as Ted Kennedy said, “The children’s health program wouldn’t be in existence today if we didn’t have Hillary pushing for it from the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.”
As First Lady of Arkansas, Hillary Clinton worked to strengthen health care for rural Arkansans. As the New York Times wrote in 1993, “But Mrs. Clinton’s work in children’s and health issues was far more typical of her public posture in Arkansas. Her public involvement in policy issues began only a few months after her husband was inaugurated to his first term as Governor on Jan. 10, 1979, when he appointed her to be the chairwoman of the 44-member Rural Health Advisory Committee. Her work with that board in developing programs to expand health care in the state’s isolated farm and mountain country began a career of committee work on health and education issues.”