Hillary Clinton warned us on Monday, "Health care is coming back.   It may be a bad dream for some."   Just who has bad dreams about Hillary's health care plans?

On September 22, 1993, President William Jefferson Clinton presented a 1,000 page plan which was to be the main thrust of his first term, health care reform.   The plan had been the invention of Bill's wife Hillary.   The plan's main thrust was a requirement for employers to provide HMO coverage for all employees.   Liberal Democrats applauded wildly at the proposal.   The rest of us booed and the Democrat controlled Congress killed it.   The Democrat-controlled Congress killed "Hillary care."   Clinton's political clout was substantially weakened.   Congress hit one of its worst cases of gridlock in history.   And Republicans won control of Congress.

Some pundits view this historical event as the result of a well organized campaign waged by conservatives and business to sway the public against the proposal.   I remember it a bit differently.   At the time, I had just taken a position with a start-up company in Manhattan.   I was having some fairly significant health problems which my doctors under my previous employer's HMO couldn't seem to help me with.   My new employer had pretty could health insurance coverage but it was a traditional indemnity plan.   I was free to choose my doctor.   So I gathered up my pennies and sought out one of the most well-respected specialists in the area I was having trouble with.   He fixed the problem but I had to pay big time for it.   His charges were about the same as my previous doctors' charges and my insurance covered everything.   But I had to pay with my ears.

My doctor was a staunch liberal New Yorker.   He advocated Democrats at every turn.   But he told me he was sorry he had ever voted for Bill Clinton once he saw the health insurance proposal.   The man had been a significant pioneer in his area of specialization.   He had established treatment methodologies for one of the biggest killers facing Americans up until that time.   He turned that problem into a routine matter with a 99% fix.   He was also a teacher at a prestigious medical college.   Years later I would find that every subsequent specialist in this area had been mentored by the man at one time or another.   He was also extremely outspoken.   He read me chapter and verse about how exactly "Hillary care" would destroy the medical profession and ultimately result in downgraded patient treatment.

I was subjected to such a deluge of reasons why so-called universal health care would cause irreparable harm to American society that I can't exactly remember everything he said.   Suffice it to say that the main thrust was you can offer highly motivated individuals the opportunity to earn a very good living by taking care of those who can pay and volunteering their time to take care of those who cannot, or you can give everyone the lowest common denominator in which case the poorest will get no better care than they do already.   When you regulate an industry like health care, what you end up with is far lower pay - read far lower motivation.   The Canadians and Irish are well versed in this simple fact.   They stand in line to get significantly reduced treatment, in a less timely manner, provided by fewer and less motivated doctors.   That is why wealthy Canadians come to the United States for complicated diagnoses and procedures.

There is a myth in American thinking that some go without any health care because they don't have insurance.   This just isn't true.   There are certain problems the poorest face but complete lack of medical services isn't one of them.   That's because our government already does provide health insurance for these folks - they pay hospitals directly for services to the poor via entitlement and other programs.   And when they don't completely cover such services, you can bet the rest of us pay when we meet our hospital obligations and pay our health insurance premiums.   That's as true for all citizens as it is for non-citizens.   Just ask the hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of illegal Mexican immigrants who flock here specifically for health care.   A very large portion of these illegals do not just happen to be here working "menial jobs Americans won't do," but rather come here specifically for health care, particularly during pregnancy.   They have neither insurance nor funds to cover costs and they are NOT turned away nor given inferior care.

So I wonder who Hillary was talking about when she said her ideas about health care may be a bad dream for some.   Quite obviously husband Bill would have bad dreams about it.   I imagine my doctor would too.   Presumably Democrats in general would lose sleep worrying about the possible ramifications.   Wealthy Canadians seeking higher quality care might have a few nightmares trying to find doctors under a universal plan for Americans since the number of doctors would drop.   Mexicans would still come.   But maybe its really the rest of us who should be having nightmares.   If we don't, we might wake up and find ourselves in a bad dream reality.