New study shows that Trump’s healthcare plan would raise costs, while Clinton’s plan would insure more people.
A new study sheds light on the healthcare plans proposed by presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
The Commonwealth Fund study, released on Friday, was conducted by “Christine Eibner and colleagues at the RAND Corporation,” using “RAND’s COMPARE microsimulation model to estimate how the candidates’ proposals would affect health insurance coverage, the federal deficit, and consumers’ out-of-pocket health care spending.”
As NBC News explains, the analysis determined that Trump’s plan “would cause about 20 million to lose coverage,” while Clinton’s plan “would provide coverage for an additional 9 million people.”
Noting the two plans’ “stark differences,” the Associated Press reports that “Republican candidate Trump would repeal ‘Obamacare’ and replace it with a new tax deduction, insurance market changes, and a Medicaid overhaul. Democrat Clinton would increase financial assistance for people with private insurance and expand government coverage as well.”
Sara R. Collins, Vice President for Health Care Coverage and Access at The Commonwealth Fund, provided further analysis on the study in an additional To the Point post.
According to Collins, “Hillary Clinton’s proposals might be best described as enhancements to the ACA and Donald Trump’s as replacements for the ACA.”
Collins summarized the plans as follows:
In summary, Hillary Clinton’s health care proposals would maintain and extend existing affordable insurance coverage, providing insurance to millions more people than would Donald Trump’s proposals. Clinton’s proposals also lower consumers’ out-of-pocket spending on average. Trump’s ACA repeal and replacement options would make insurance coverage in the individual market more expensive on average, with some proposals resulting in low- and moderate-income families paying more than higher-income people. In contrast, Clinton’s proposals maintain the progressivity of the ACA insurance expansions—lower-income people would pay less for coverage than higher income people—while providing some savings to people across the income spectrum.
Collins goes on to explain that, while both Clinton and Trump “emphasize improving the quality of health care and the performance of the health system,” Clinton’s plan offers the following three distinctions from Trump’s:
- “Clinton proposes dedicating more resources to ensuring that people in poor neighborhoods and rural areas have access to primary care services.”
- “She wants greater integration of mental health services and physical health care”
- And she “also offers a number of new proposals to provide help for families caring for older relatives or family members with Alzheimer’s disease, as well as people with drug or alcohol addiction.”
- Source Links – August 29, 2020
- About Pat Warde: Eulogy Tribute by Eleanor Hughes – April 1, 2019
- Editorial Note – January 15, 2019
You must be logged in to post a comment Login