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