Donald Trump, who has been fighting with his back to the wall in the face of adverse polls over the past few weeks, has seized on the sudden big spike in Obamacare health insurance premiums in an all-out bid to use the public angst on this key issue as a springboard for his own comeback in the presidential race.
As soon as the Obama administration conceded that the health insurance premiums will go up by an average 25 per cent, the Republican presidential nominee went hammer and tongs at three campaign events across Florida on Tuesday, claiming that Obamacare was “blowing up” and vowing that he would introduce legislation on his first day in office to replace it.
“Repealing Obamacare and stopping Hillary’s health-care takeover is one of the single most important reasons that we must win on November 8,” Trump declared, adding: “Hillary Clinton wants to keep it. She wants to spend a fortune on it…. She wants to double-down on Obamacare and make it even more expensive and worse.”
Clinton, who was also in Florida on Tuesday, promised to address Obamacare’s shortcomings, such as high deductibles and prescription medicine costs, but made it clear that a programme which has provided access to millions of uninsured just cannot be allowed to be ripped apart.
The landmark Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, has been regarded as President Barack Obama’s biggest domestic policy achievement. But public opinion has remained divided on Obamacare that was pushed through the US Congress in 2010 in the face of outright rejection by the Republicans who, after gaining majorities in both chambers in subsequent years, have voted repeatedly for its repeal, only to be vetoed by President Obama.
Trump said the 25 per cent hike was only an average figure, with the 2017 premiums set to go far above that in many States. In Arizona, for instance, the premiums are projected to increase by 116 per cent. Although Trump has not outlined a viable alternative thus far, he promised to replace it with a much cheaper programme.
“The rates are going through the sky,” Trump said at a rally in Sanford, Florida, asserting that the rates would go up “60, 70, 80, 90 per cent” in various States, even as the Department of Health and Human Services put the average increase at 25 per cent and went on to say that the increases would be cushioned by government subsidies for most people.
Clinton, admitting that the Obamacare premium costs have “gone up too much”, said in a Miami radio interview: “So we’re going to really tackle that. We’re going to get copays and premiums and deductibles down. We’re going to tackle prescription drug costs. And we can do that without ripping away the insurance that people now have.”
“We’re going to win Florida,” Trump exulted as he targeted Obama and Clinton at his rallies. Obamacare apart, he tapped the latest instalment of hacked emails put out by Wikileaks to allege that a political action committee of Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, a close friend of the Clintons, and a few other entities under his influence donated nearly $700,000 to the election campaign of the wife of an FBI official who was overseeing the investigation into Clinton’s email saga.
Meanwhile, Trump’s daughter-in-law lara Trump visited the Rajdhani Temple, a popular Virginia shrine on the outskirts of the national capital, to celebrate Diwali and make a push for Indian-American votes.
Wife of Eric Trump, the second son of the Republican nominee, she said US-India relationship will reach new heights if her father-in-law gets elected. “I really like Hindu culture and I respect it,” she added.