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A4 U.S. NEWS
Monday 15 July 2019

Biden campaigns as Obamacare’s top defender

By BILL BARROW representing the conse-
Associated Press quences of their proposals.
Joe Biden is taking an ag- “Bernie’s been very honest
gressive approach to de- about it,” Biden said. “He
fending Obamacare, chal- said you’re going to have
lenging not just President to raise taxes on the middle
Donald Trump but also class. He said it’s going to
some of his rivals for the end all private insurance. I
Democratic presidential mean, he’s been straight-
nomination who want to forward about it. And he’s
replace the current insur- making his case.”
ance system with a fully During last month’s de-
government-run model. bates, Harris, Warren and
The former vice president Sanders raised their hands
will spend much of the com- when candidates were
ing week talking about his asked as a group whether
approach to health care, they supported eliminat-
including remarks he’ll de- ing private insurance. A
liver on Monday in Iowa at day later, Harris, a Senate
a presidential forum spon- co-sponsor of Sanders’
sored by AARP. His almost single-payer bill, reversed
singular focus on the 2010 her answer — the second
health care law has been time since her campaign
on display recently during Former Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, speaks at a campaign launch that she’d walked
campaign stops in the ear- stop, Saturday, July 13, 2019, in Londonderry, N.H. back her seeming endorse-
ly voting states. Associated Press ment of eliminating private
In Iowa, he declared him- ance plan known as the ular among Democratic Perhaps as important, it’s insurance.
self “against any Repub- public option to existing voters. And it could rein- an opportunity for Biden to She explained that she in-
lican (and) any Demo- exchanges that sell private force his pitch as a sensible go on offense ahead of the terpreted the debate mod-
crat who wants to scrap” insurance. centrist promising to rise next presidential debate erator’s question as asking
Obamacare. Later in New Biden is hoping his position- above between the stri- at the end of July. Biden whether she’d be willing to
Hampshire, he said “we ing as Obamacare’s chief dent cacophony of Trump has spent the past several give up her existing cov-
should not be scrapping defender could be help- and Democrats including weeks on defense revers- erage as part of a single-
Obamacare, we should ful on several fronts. It’s a Sens. Bernie Sanders, Eliza- ing his position on taxpayer payer model. She said she
be building on it,” a refer- reminder of his close work beth Warren and Kamala funding for abortions and wants private policies to
ence to his approach to alongside President Barack Harris, all single-payer ad- highlighting his past work remain “supplemental” op-
add a government insur- Obama, who remains pop- vocates. with segregationist sena- tions for consumers.
tors. Harris slammed him Sanders, meanwhile, hit
during the first debate, back at Biden, clarifying
blasting the segregationist that his plan would be a
comment and criticizing his net financial benefit for
opposition to federal bus- most households: Their fed-
ing orders to desegregate eral taxes would go up,
public schools during the but their private insurance
same era. premiums, deductibles and
Each of the episodes raised co-pays would be eliminat-
questions about whether ed.
Biden can maintain his Biden hasn’t yet introduced
front-runner status. his full health care plan, but
In New Hampshire over has said it will be anchored
the weekend, it was clear by a “Medicare-like” plan
Biden wanted to turn the that would be available
tables as he touted the to anyone — including the
idea of a “Medicare-like” 150 million-plus Americans
plan that any American now covered by job-based
could buy as opposed to insurance, a group now
a “Medicare-for-all” that ineligible for exchange-
would be imposed on ev- based policies. Biden has
eryone. indicated that income-
“I think one of the most sig- based subsidies would en-
nificant things we’ve done sure that any household
in our administration is pass could get coverage. The
the Affordable Care Act,” idea is to expand cov-
Biden said. “I don’t know erage immediately and
why we’d get rid of what shake up insurance mar-
in fact was working and kets long-term by forcing
move to something totally private insurers to compete
new. And so, there are dif- alongside the government,
ferences.” theoretically pressuring to
He argued that some of his lower their premiums and
opponents, with the excep- out-of-pocket costs for pri-
tion of Sanders, aren’t fairly vate policy holders.q