Trump Says Clinton Wants Single-Payer Healthcare -- Is He Right?
During the second presidential debate last Sunday, Republican candidate Donald Trump said that Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton wants to embrace a single-payer health insurance system that's similar to Europe or Canada. Replacing private insurance with a government-run, single-payer system is highly controversial, but is Trump correct in his claims that such a program is in Clinton's plans?
In this clip from The Motley Fool's Industry Focus: Healthcare podcast, analyst Kristine Harjes is joined by contributor Todd Campbell to fact-check Trump's assertions and provide insight into Clinton's plans for healthcare.
A full transcript follows the video.
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This podcast was recorded on Oct. 12, 2016.
Kristine Harjes: One of the other things that came upin the debate was claimed by Trump thatHillary Clinton wants to go to a single-payer system. Before discussing whether or not that's true, can you give us a little bit of context on what that even means?
Todd Campbell:There wasa lot of debate during the primarybetween Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clintonon the value or the concept of a Medicare-for-all, wherebasically you would eliminate the system as it stands today and you open up Medicareso that everyone can participate in Medicare,rather than just people who are over 65. Bernie Sanders advocatedfor Medicare-for-all. Hillary Clinton did not. But she didconcede over the course of the primaryto start thinking about possibly expandingMedicare to include more people, perhaps people who are in their 50s, or areas,for example, where insurers like [UnitedHealth Group] haveexited, and maybe there's only one choice, or there are no choices in the Obamacare exchanges,perhaps providing people with an option where they can buy into Medicareregardless of their age that way.
Harjes:Greatexplanation. Thanks, Todd! You also answered the question of whether or not this claim is true. Clinton to has indeed never endorseda Medicare-for-all system.
Campbell:Yeah, she actually came out earlierin the year and saidit's just not something we can dogiven how vested we are in our current system. It would be too hard to do. So, she has been advocating forchanging Obamacare,making it better, recognizing that it has faultsand making some tweaks and adjustments along the way. That, of course, is in stark contrast to Trump,who has said that he favors a full repeal of Obamacare and starting from scratch with an entirely new system.
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