Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump tried to seize on the rising costs of the Affordable Care Act (‘Obamacare’), which regulates America’s health insurance market, to lift his campaign in its final fortnight. “The rates are going through the sky,” Mr. Trump said, campaigning in the battleground State of Florida. “Repealing Obamacare and stopping Hillary’s health care takeover is one of the single most important reasons that we must win on November 8,” he said.
Obamacare has been debated throughout the campaign, but looming premium hikes ahead of enrolment for the year 2017 has brought the issue to the centre-stage as the administration admitted this week to a 22 per cent hike in the benchmark policy premium. An estimated seven million people, who are not covered by employers and ineligible for subsidies because their incomes are above the limits, will be affected by premium increases. Besides constantly increasing premiums, multiple other issues saddle Obamacare, and the next President will have to deal with it almost immediately after taking over. Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s plan includes adding a state insurer to the market, while Mr. Trump’s plan hinges on creating a national market that will increase competition as opposed to State-wise markets that exist now.
Hillary walks a tightropeADVERTISEMENT
Ms. Clinton has been walking a tightrope on Obamacare, taking credit for its successes — which includes bringing 20 million Americans under insurance cover — and promising to ease the burden on people who are marginally better off. But talk on the issue has occasionally crossed the thin line, as happened when her husband Bill Clinton called it the “craziest thing in the world” recently.
Mr. Trump’s criticism of the programme on Tuesday exposed him to criticism that he does not understand the issues in play. “..all of my employees are having a tremendous problem with Obamacare,” he said. The law requires that a company as big as his must provide health insurance to employees and hence they are unaffected by the Obamacare premiums. “They’re not worried about their health care because we take great care of people,” he said later, contradicting himself.
Ms. Clinton, who also campaigned in Florida on Tuesday, said: “…predominantly working people, African-American, Latino people now have access to insurance, but the costs have gone up too much. So we’re going to really tackle that.”
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Meanwhile, Ms. Clinton got a shot in the arm when Republican Colin Powell, a former Secretary of State, announced that he would be voting for her. He joins the list of dozens of Republican policy experts who have disowned the party’s candidate in favour of the Democrat.