Since last week’s blog there have been interesting developments in the 2020 Presidential race. Michael Bloomberg and Elizabeth Warren have since both dropped out, leaving five remaining candidates. The candidates are, current president, Donald Trump, William Weld, Bernie Sanders, Tulsi Gabbard, and Joe Biden. I went through Elizabeth Warren, Tulsi Gabbard, and Joe Biden’s healthcare plans for when they get elected to the office last week, so this week I will be examining the remaining candidates’ plans. Beginning with Bernie Sanders.
One of my blogs focused directly on Donald Trump and his actions while in office. Another blog I wrote focused on Medicare versus Medicaid, which is important in understanding the different healthcare plans, is a major topic amongst the presidential candidates. A main criticism for Bernie Sanders is that he is too much of a “Socialist.” His programs would impede too much into the private citizens lives and some argue that his health care policies would do the same. “Health care as a human right-Medicare for all.” This is the headline of Sander’s section on health care from his website. As of right now people are allowed to choose their providers for health insurance, if their jobs give them insurance, etc. Under Bernie Sanders plan there would be one provider which all American citizens would pay into and at the point of service everything would be free. His explanation for this policy is that we are a developed nation where we still have large amount of people who are uninsured. For the people who are insured the medical bills alone with “cause” bankruptcy. Sanders also mentions “giant pharmaceutical” companies, which other candidates have mentioned, saying that they shouldn’t be making profits off of Americans necessities to live. Referencing to other countries and their health care policies, his website says that we would be “joining every other major country on Earth and guaranteeing heath care to all people as a right, not a privilege, through a Medicare-for-all, single payer program.” Going back to the reason he gets called a Socialist is because many people like the option to obtain their own insurance plans, and don’t want the State intervening in their lives. However, the other side of this argument is exactly what Bernie Sanders is saying is that not everyone has the luxury of this option.
Williams Weld is the only other Republican candidate besides Donald Trump. In my opinion he is also the least known candidate for this race. He separated his health care policy page on his website into five different categories, beginning with “How I Look at Health Care.” This section is mainly just an overview of his thoughts on the current health care situation. Here is discusses what Democrats want, the Affordable Care Act, and the Trump Administration. It is not a very long section, each of the sections are only about two to three paragraphs long, but it covers a wide variety of topics. He criticizes the Trump Administrations vague response to the health care situation in our country, but he also disagrees with the Democrats on trying to socialize insurance plans. Weld states that “we do not need to tear down a program which have assisted millions of people.” Second section is on “the core issues” of health care. Transparency in payment cost will help combat rising prices as people will be able to choose the one that cost the least. He wants to get rid of regulations that eliminate low-cost health insurance plan, because “some people simply want to pay less, and there’s nothing wrong with that.” Again, Weld is another candidate to offer an opinion on drug companies and the over cost of the drugs they produce. This is the focus of section three. Section four I think is interesting because he discusses veteran’s health care and no other candidate has done that. In this section Weld mentions allowing veterans to treat PTSD with cannabis, this is the first mention of such drugs in any of the policies. The last section is on medical leave, other candidates have mentioned this, but he talks only about sick leave or taking care of someone who is sick. Elizabeth Warren had mentioned maternity leave and she was really the only other candidate to mention any sort of paid leave.
I hope these last couple of blogs have been helpful in understanding the health care policies of the current candidates. As we continue on blogging, I will try and keep a brief update of what is happening. Next week’s blog will most likely focus on the Coronavirus so stay tuned.
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