Now that Hillary Clinton has officially conceded the race to Democratic nominee Barack Obama, the fate of
affordable health insurance seems to be up in the air.
Clinton's platform was prominently supported by her assertion that should she be elected president, not only would affordable health insurance become a reality for all Americans, all Americans would be required to have coverage.
This would have theoretically provided coverage to most of the almost 50 million Americans out there without insurance, as well as minimized the burden of growing medical debt on hospitals and consumers.
Detractors argued that the country couldn't afford to offer such a plan.
But now, according to
Kaiser's Daily Health Policy Report, the fate of mandatory, affordable health insurance is sealed. Neither candidate running for the fall believes in health care mandates, with the exception of children's health care as supported by Barack Obama.
Other setbacks to the mandatory health care plan include the failure of a similar plan to pass in California, though Massachusetts is seeing growing improvements in the mandate they enacted just this year.
But among other basic needs like gas and food, health insurance prices are still growing out of control. Hopefully whoever wins the election in November will take steps to make affordable health insurance available to more Americans, even if it isn't required by law to purchase it.
