Days of campaign back-and-forth over health care came to a head Thursday evening as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) released an outline for his universal, single payer plan hours before Sunday evening’s debate and once onstage, Clinton refined her attacks.
“I’m not sure whether we are talking about the plan you just introduced tonight or the plan you introduced nine times in Congress,” Clinton chided.
In the last week, the Clinton campaign had amped up its attack of Sanders’ plan, including its lack of detail. Sunday evening, Clinton shed some of the more blatant scare tactics that had brought her criticism and settled on one major point:
“The Democratic Party and the United States worked since Harry Truman to get the Affordable Care passed. We finally have a path to universal healthcare, we have accomplished so much already. I do not want to see the Republicans repeal it, and I don’t want to start over again with a contentious debate.”
Sanders called her assertions “nonsense” and argued that Obamacare had come up short in extending coverage for all and bringing down overall costs.
He also pivoted to criticism of the campaign finance system, which he said was allowing the pharmaceutical industry and private insurance industries to pour “hundreds of millions of dollars into campaign contributions and lobbying.”
“What this is really about is not the rational way to go forward. It’s medicare for all,” Sanders said. “It is whether we have the guts to stand up the private insurance companies and all of their money, and the pharmaceutical industry. That’s what this debate should be about.”
I fully recognize I’m biased here, but does anyone think that Hillary got the upper hand on this issue? I don’t.
I do, but i am also bias. But saying your going to do massive change to healthcare and put in taxes, whatever your idea is, is just going to be easy fodder for attack in the general.
No. There are still tons of people without health insurance. Costs are a huge problem.
She saying the status quo is the way to go. It’s still a problem, so don’t know how she won this.
Expanding medicare couldn’t be a more easy way to go.
Is that the plan? I just took a look at what they put on their website and in the details section doesn’t sound like thats what they are doing. Sounds like the plan is to remove all other plans and replace it with one federal plan. And have a bunch of taxes to pay for it. Sure that sounds really really easy to pass in setup.