Maggie McCann, Contributing Writer |
At this time of the year, all of the current presidential candidates are formulating their health care defenses in preparation for the 2020 elections. Health care will be and already is of utmost importance to the candidates of the 2020 election.
President Trump has recently stepped up his opposition to the current Affordable Health Care Act (ACA). On Monday, March 25, the Trump administration escalated their resistance calling for the federal courts to overturn the ACA act in its entirety, arguing that “the statute is unconstitutional.”
Legal experts dismiss the action as absurd, but the plan is finding supporters in highly conservative voters, just as it did when the president promised to repeal and replace the ACA. Trump’s proposal to repeal the entire ACA has been successful in conservative states where his 2020 campaign will be most well received. More than just President Trump, all party candidates are beginning to realize the significance of health care for the future of American government.
Almost all of President Trump’s opponents in the 2020 election have stated their support for affordable health care thus far. However, the devil is in the details. There is a world of difference between each candidate’s meaning of “affordable healthcare.”
Senators Bernie Sanders, Kirsten Gillibrand, Elizabeth Warren, as well as San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro and Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard have announced their support for ideas similar to those of the single-payer “Medicare for All,” a model defined by CNBC as a Medicare plan that would “greatly expand the pool of Americans eligible for the program […] widen the types of coverage available, as well as push private insurers out of the Medicare mix.”
However, many other presidential hopefuls are saying the single-payer plan is something that may work down the line but right now believe there is no chance a proposal as “radical” as single-payer Medicare will pass.
Senators Cory Booker, Sherrod Brown, Amy Klobuchar, and Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg all agree a less extreme change to the current Medicare bill would be more practical.
While discussing the issue back in February of this year, Booker reported, “Medicare for All is great, but if we can’t get that, but if we can extend Medicare down to age 55 … that’s going to create such an effect on the whole system that’s going to make it better.” It is the opinion of Booker and the other three candidates not backing single-payer health care that more moderate change would be faster acting and help the people sooner than the radical single-payer model that will most likely never pass in a Republican controlled house.
As we move closer to the 2020 election, more information will come to light, and voters will have to decide which side of the health care debate they’re on. It is certain that health care will be a determining factor in who we see on the podium come November 2020.
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