The Making of the President 2016: Part 24 The Issues-Health Care
The Trump Campaign
Donald Trump has vowed to repeal the Affordable Care Act (dubbed "Obamacare") and replace it with with Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). These are tax-free accounts that taxpayers would be allowed to accumulate and which could be part of an individual's estate that could be passed on to heirs (as the Trump website puts it, "without fear of any death penalty".) HSA's could be used by any member of a family without penalty.
Trump also promises to work with Congress to create a patient-centered health care system that promotes choice, quality, and affordability. He would encourage each state to ensure access to coverage for individuals who have not maintained continuous coverage, and to allow people to purchase insurance across state lines, in all 50 states.
Trump has been critical of President Barack Obama, because of the President's representation that under the Affordable Care Act, the cost of family premiums would be reduced as much as $2,500 a year. The Trump campaign argues that premiums have actually gone up by almost $5,000 and that plans created under the Affordable Care Act Exchange have lost over $2.2 Billion in 2014. The campaign alleges that health insurance companies are fleeing the Exchanges. They also claim that premiums have increased dramatically across the nation, with a national average of almost 25%, and with some states experiencing rate increases up to 70%. Trump complains that more than half the Exchange plans have deductibles of $3,000 or more, with deductibles going up in 2017, some as high as $7,000 per person. He also complains that enrollees can’t find doctors and that the Affordable Care Act has reduced pay for workers in small businesses and reduced employment by more than 350,000 jobs nationwide. He argues that the employer mandate has raised the minimum cost of hiring a full-time worker to $10.30/hour for larger employers, without increasing take-home pay for workers. He says that state and municipal governments have been forced to cut hours of part-time employees as a result.
Trump has vowed to push for legislation to allow individuals to fully deduct health insurance premium payments from their tax returns under the current tax system. He also promises to require price transparency from all healthcare providers, especially doctors and healthcare organizations like clinics and hospitals. His website also asserts: "Providing healthcare to illegal immigrants costs us some $11 billion annually. If we were to simply enforce the current immigration laws and restrict the unbridled granting of visas to this country, we could relieve healthcare cost pressures on state and local governments."
The Clinton Campaign
On her campaign website Hillary Clinton promises to fight Republican attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. She argues that this legislation has made preventive care available and affordable for an estimated 39 million people and saved more than 9 million people with Medicare thousands of dollars in prescription drug expenses. She also promises to "fight back against Republican plans to privatize or phase out Medicare". She warns voters that Republicans have called for privatizing or phasing out Medicare, which would shift millions more seniors into private plans that would dramatically raise costs. \
Clinton also has pledged to work to reduce drug costs and to ensure that Medicare can negotiate lower drug prices with pharmaceutical companies for lower costs. She also wants to reform Medicare delivery systems to deliver value and quality to our seniors and people with disabilities.
Clinton has also spoken on the issue of addiction in America and has put forth a plan to support people in recovery, by creating a $7.5 billion fund to support new federal-state partnerships for local leaders to implement programs that work for their communities. This would incluide programs to teach adolescents about drug use and addiction. She also wants to provide first responders with access to naloxone, a drug that can prevent opioid overdoses from becoming fatal. She has pledged to impose standards on drug prescribers with regard to training and monitoring program before writing a prescription for controlled medications. She also sees criminal justice reform as an important component in addressing the problem of substance abuse and calls for more rehabilitation and treatment instead of prison for low-level and nonviolent drug offenders.
Clinton has targeted autism as an illness for which greater government support and programs should be implemented. She pledges to expand insurance coverage for autism services, to conduct a nationwide early screening outreach campaign for kids to get diagnosed and receive services, and to invest into autism. She also promises to increase employment opportunities for individuals with autism by launching a new Autism Works Initiative that will include a post-graduation transition plan for every student with autism, along with a public-private partnership to connect people with autism to employment opportunities.
She has also promised to fully implement the National HIV/AIDS Strategy and to invest in research to end HIV and AIDS. She promises to work to cap out-of-pocket expenses for people living with HIV and AIDS and calls it unacceptable for a pharmaceutical company to raise the price of medicine for HIV and AIDS patients by more than 5,000 percent. Specifically, she says that she will cap monthly and annual out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs at $250 and end subsidies drug companies get for direct-to-consumer advertising and instead invest that money in research.
Clinton has set a target for a finding a possible cure for Alzheimer’s disease by 2025. She pledges to invest $2 billion per year in research for Alzheimer’s and related disorders, which her website says is the level leading researchers have determined necessary to prevent and effectively treat Alzheimer’s and make a cure possible by 2025.
Donald Trump has vowed to repeal the Affordable Care Act (dubbed "Obamacare") and replace it with with Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). These are tax-free accounts that taxpayers would be allowed to accumulate and which could be part of an individual's estate that could be passed on to heirs (as the Trump website puts it, "without fear of any death penalty".) HSA's could be used by any member of a family without penalty.
Trump also promises to work with Congress to create a patient-centered health care system that promotes choice, quality, and affordability. He would encourage each state to ensure access to coverage for individuals who have not maintained continuous coverage, and to allow people to purchase insurance across state lines, in all 50 states.
Trump has been critical of President Barack Obama, because of the President's representation that under the Affordable Care Act, the cost of family premiums would be reduced as much as $2,500 a year. The Trump campaign argues that premiums have actually gone up by almost $5,000 and that plans created under the Affordable Care Act Exchange have lost over $2.2 Billion in 2014. The campaign alleges that health insurance companies are fleeing the Exchanges. They also claim that premiums have increased dramatically across the nation, with a national average of almost 25%, and with some states experiencing rate increases up to 70%. Trump complains that more than half the Exchange plans have deductibles of $3,000 or more, with deductibles going up in 2017, some as high as $7,000 per person. He also complains that enrollees can’t find doctors and that the Affordable Care Act has reduced pay for workers in small businesses and reduced employment by more than 350,000 jobs nationwide. He argues that the employer mandate has raised the minimum cost of hiring a full-time worker to $10.30/hour for larger employers, without increasing take-home pay for workers. He says that state and municipal governments have been forced to cut hours of part-time employees as a result.
Trump has vowed to push for legislation to allow individuals to fully deduct health insurance premium payments from their tax returns under the current tax system. He also promises to require price transparency from all healthcare providers, especially doctors and healthcare organizations like clinics and hospitals. His website also asserts: "Providing healthcare to illegal immigrants costs us some $11 billion annually. If we were to simply enforce the current immigration laws and restrict the unbridled granting of visas to this country, we could relieve healthcare cost pressures on state and local governments."
The Clinton Campaign
On her campaign website Hillary Clinton promises to fight Republican attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. She argues that this legislation has made preventive care available and affordable for an estimated 39 million people and saved more than 9 million people with Medicare thousands of dollars in prescription drug expenses. She also promises to "fight back against Republican plans to privatize or phase out Medicare". She warns voters that Republicans have called for privatizing or phasing out Medicare, which would shift millions more seniors into private plans that would dramatically raise costs. \
Clinton also has pledged to work to reduce drug costs and to ensure that Medicare can negotiate lower drug prices with pharmaceutical companies for lower costs. She also wants to reform Medicare delivery systems to deliver value and quality to our seniors and people with disabilities.
Clinton has also spoken on the issue of addiction in America and has put forth a plan to support people in recovery, by creating a $7.5 billion fund to support new federal-state partnerships for local leaders to implement programs that work for their communities. This would incluide programs to teach adolescents about drug use and addiction. She also wants to provide first responders with access to naloxone, a drug that can prevent opioid overdoses from becoming fatal. She has pledged to impose standards on drug prescribers with regard to training and monitoring program before writing a prescription for controlled medications. She also sees criminal justice reform as an important component in addressing the problem of substance abuse and calls for more rehabilitation and treatment instead of prison for low-level and nonviolent drug offenders.
Clinton has targeted autism as an illness for which greater government support and programs should be implemented. She pledges to expand insurance coverage for autism services, to conduct a nationwide early screening outreach campaign for kids to get diagnosed and receive services, and to invest into autism. She also promises to increase employment opportunities for individuals with autism by launching a new Autism Works Initiative that will include a post-graduation transition plan for every student with autism, along with a public-private partnership to connect people with autism to employment opportunities.
She has also promised to fully implement the National HIV/AIDS Strategy and to invest in research to end HIV and AIDS. She promises to work to cap out-of-pocket expenses for people living with HIV and AIDS and calls it unacceptable for a pharmaceutical company to raise the price of medicine for HIV and AIDS patients by more than 5,000 percent. Specifically, she says that she will cap monthly and annual out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs at $250 and end subsidies drug companies get for direct-to-consumer advertising and instead invest that money in research.
Clinton has set a target for a finding a possible cure for Alzheimer’s disease by 2025. She pledges to invest $2 billion per year in research for Alzheimer’s and related disorders, which her website says is the level leading researchers have determined necessary to prevent and effectively treat Alzheimer’s and make a cure possible by 2025.