DNC Chairwoman Hits Jeb On Apple Watch: ‘I Had Cancer. There’s No App For That’

Democratic National Committee Chairwoman U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, D-Fla., attends a state Democratic Party event honoring former U.S. Sen. David Pryor and his family in Little Rock, Ark., Thursday, April 2... Democratic National Committee Chairwoman U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, D-Fla., attends a state Democratic Party event honoring former U.S. Sen. David Pryor and his family in Little Rock, Ark., Thursday, April 23, 2015. (AP Photo/Danny Johnston) MORE LESS
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Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) took aim at former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) for linking apps on the Apple Watch to why Obamacare should be repealed.

While bashing Obamacare on Thursday, Bush predicted that in a few years the Apple Watch would offer apps that “allow me to manage my healthcare in ways that five years ago were not even possible.”

Bush added that “it will be able to guide our healthcare decisions in a way that make us health and ultimately, we have to get to a health system, away from a disease system.”

On Friday, Wasserman Schultz shot back at Bush’s comments.

See the video of Bush below:

To be clear, Bush did not say that Apple Watches should replace Obamacare. But as Sarah Kliff notes, Bush’s comments are peculiar for how he described how the watch will help people stay healthy. Bush said there would be an app that monitors people’s blood sugar closely.

Currently, healthcare providers do that. To get that, one needs health insurance. But the best data available shows that if Obamacare were repealed, that would reduce access to health insurance and likely would reduce access to the type of heart-monitoring program that Bush described. So, ironically, Bush is describing an app that would probably be more effective in a world where Obamacare were in place.

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  1. I think that Jebba is right. We should abolish the federal government and all the services it provides (Except things that the GOTP likes.) because all of that can be provided on the App Store.

    Of course we cannot abolish state governments, especially those in the red states because what they do can’t be replaced.

  2. And this one tells me that my head is still up my ass…

  3. “Bush said there would be an app that monitors people’s blood sugar closely. Currently, healthcare providers do that. To get that, one needs health insurance.”

    To be more precise, in order to monitor your own blood sugar, one needs health insurance that will pay for a continuous glucose monitor ($1200 to start plus on-going costs for the attachment to the body which you have to change every week), software so that the CGM will talk to your phone and your smartwatch (maybe free, maybe not), a doctor’s prescription to get the CGM (it isn’t sold over-the-counter), and, of course, a smartphone, a smartwatch, and monthly costs to Verizon and friends.

    Now, if you are rich like the Bushes, that’s the cost of an evening at your favorite fundraiser. For the rest of us, that’s a lot of money!

  4. The invisible [watch] hands of the market

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