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Page 8 The Skanner October 26, 2016 Health & Wellness: Senior Health Policy Prescriptions: Clinton and Trump on Health Care By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar Associated Press WASHINGTON — Hil- lary Clinton has been involved in the nation’s health care debate for more than 20 years and, as her campaign likes to say, she has the scars to prove it. The Democratic presi- dential candidate failed in her 1990s effort to steer her husband’s uni- versal coverage program through Congress, as the complex plan collapsed for lack of political sup- port. Since then, she has tacked sometimes to the right on health care, and sometimes to the left. Clinton is campaigning as the candidate of con- tinuity and would leave all major health care pro- grams in place. She has a long list of tweaks and adjustments that reflect her familiarity with pol- icy and would expand the government’s role in health care. Donald Trump calls President Barack Obama’s health care law “a disaster,” and vows to repeal it. He’d provide a new tax deduction for health in- surance premiums, but also limit federal support for Medicaid, which cov- PHOTO BY JERRY FOSTER Clinton promises to allow Americans as young as 55 buy into Medicare; Trump promised not to repeal it, but wants to repeal ACA Pancake Breakfast On Oct. 22 Commissioner Loretta Smith, Senator Ron Wyden, the Urban League of Portland, Black Women for Peace and more than 100 local seniors took part in a free senior pancake breakfast. The event, at the Urban League’s Multicultural Senior Center, included a presentation by Black Women for Peace, and an opportunity to ask elected leaders about important local and national issues. The event also addressed the issue of food insecurity among seniors, particularly those living in isolation. ers low-income people. An independent analysis recently estimated his seven-point plan would cause 20 million people to lose coverage. Trump’s ideas on health care have shifted over time, and his latest plan hews to basic GOP talking points. Here is a summary of their proposals: MEDICARE The government’s pre- mier health insurance program covers about 57 million people, including 48 million seniors and 9 million disabled people under age 65. It enjoys strong support from vot- ers across the political spectrum, although its long-term financial out- look is uncertain. CLINTON: She would authorize Medicare to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies, and she sup- ports allowing patients to import lower-cost pre- scriptions from abroad. Medicare beneficiaries represent a big share of the market for medica- tions. Clinton would also al- low people ages 55-64 to buy into Medicare, al- though her campaign has not released much detail on how that would work. TRUMP: He promises not to cut Medicare, and has suggested that other Republicans like House Speaker Paul Ryan made a political mistake by calling for major chang- es. But it remains unclear how Trump’s proposed repeal of “Obamacare” would affect its improve- ments to Medicare bene- fits, including closing the prescription drug cov- erage gap known as the “doughnut hole.” Earlier, Trump spoke approvingly of giving Medicare legal authority to negotiate prescription drug prices, but that idea currently is not men- tioned in his health care plan. Instead, he also supports allowing drug importation. MEDICAID The federal-state pro- gram for low-income individuals covers more than 70 million people, from pregnant women and children to elder- ly nursing home resi- dents. Under Obama’s health care law, states can expand the program to include more low-in- come adults. Medicaid has sometimes carried a social stigma, but polls show the program has a solid base of public sup- port. CLINTON: She’d work to expand Medicaid in the 19 states that have yet to take advantage of the health law. She’s proposing three years of full federal funding for those states, the same deal given to states that embraced the law right away. TRUMP: In 2015 Trump told an inter- viewer: “I’m not going to cut Social Security like every other Republican. And I’m not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid. Every other Republican’s going to cut.” But his campaign plan would convert Medic- aid into a block grant, ending the open-ended federal entitlement and capping funding from Washington. Over time, such an approach is like- ly to result in a big cut. PRIVATE INSURANCE About 177 million peo- ple under age 65 have private health insur- ance, with nearly 9 in 10 getting their coverage through an employer. Rising out-of-pocket costs such as insurance deductibles and copay- ments are a sore point See HEALTH CARE on page 9