There are stark differences in the healthcare platforms of President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden.
Dr. James Lenhart is a family medicine specialist in Tacoma, Washington. With over four decades in medicine, he’s seen it all. And in 2017, he talked with KRWG News about his book “Conversations For Paco: Why America Needs Healthcare For All.” While the story was fictional, the situations in the book caused by America’s lack of universal care are very real for millions.
And Lenhart says politics is to blame. With politicians and others demonizing government-funded health insurance as socialism.
“Socialized medicine works. And it works much better. We just don’t like that term, socializing. But all of those countries have, quote-unquote, socialized medicine, healthcare for all. And they have far better outcomes than the United States, which decries that whole notion of socialized medicine,” said Lenhart.
While universal care costs less per capita with much better outcomes, U.S. voters see the same playbook painting any move toward government-funded care as corrupt.
When the repeal of the Affordable Care Act failed in Senate, President Trump blamed corruption and vowed to continue efforts to destroy the law.
“The swamp. But we’ll get it done. You know, I said from the beginning, let Obamacare implode, and then do it. I turned out to be right. Let Obamacare implode,” said Trump.
A decade later, the law stands. Even after the Republican tax bill that removed one of the Affordable Care Act’s main provisions, the penalty for failing to have coverage.
But a lawsuit backed by the Trump administration leaves the constitutionality of the ACA in the hands of the Supreme Court.
Some 20 million more Americans have health insurance thanks to the law. When it passed in 2010, nearly 1 in 4 were uninsured (22.3 percent). By 2016, that changed dramatically: a little more than 12 percent were uninsured, just two years after insurance marketplaces opened and some states provided Medicaid to more low-income residents.
If elected, Joe Biden wants Congress to expand Medicaid in the 14 states, including Texas, that failed to do so. Texas has the highest rate of uninsured residents in the country, nearly 1 in 5 adults as reported by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Biden also wants to help low-income people who don’t have Medicaid, but struggle to pay for insurance, limiting the percentage of income they have to spend.
“We’re going to lower premiums for people buying coverage on their own by guaranteeing that no American has to spend more than 8.5 percent of their income on health insurance. And that number will be lower for lower-income people,” said Biden.
President Trump has also said he wants to reduce the cost of insurance, but has not revealed the details for accomplishing that.
The Washington Post assembled a video in which Trump promised a plan on camera at least 15 times, dating back to the beginning of his administration.
“As soon as our Secretary is approved and gets into the office, we’ll be filing a plan…We’ll be having a really terrific, I believe, healthcare plan coming out…We’re going to have a healthcare plan that’s going to be second to none, it’s going to be great…”
While Trump has not released a detailed plan, his continued efforts in court to nullify the Affordable Care Act, indicate a move away from government regulation over health care.
Meantime, Biden wants to provide a public option, something in the original plan for the Affordable Care Act that was removed after opposition from the industry and many Republicans.
“We need a public option now more than ever. Especially when more than 20 million people are unemployed. That public option will allow every American regardless of their employment status the choice to get a Medicare-like plan. It will force private insurers to keep premiums low, offer better coverage, because for the first time, they’ll have to compete for your business against the public insurer that doesn’t have to make a profit,” said Biden.
It's unclear if such a plan would be approved by Congress, especially if Republicans maintain control of the U.S. Senate.
But, if approved, it could move the U.S. closer to universal coverage.
And Dr. James Lenhart says using healthcare premiums for healthcare, not profits, should always be the focus.
“Profit doesn’t have any place in healthcare. Because you can’t, if you’re worried about your bottom line all the time, and you’re so concerned that you’re going to have your stockholders have return on their investment, you can’t deliver the best of care.”