It's not just Republicans who are tearing each other apart over Obamacare.
Hillary Clinton says Bernie Sanders' health plan would endanger the accomplishments of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and that it would impose a tax increase that middle class Americans can't afford.
Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, supports a single-payer health care system in the model of many other western countries. He has said he'd finance the dramatic expansion of public health services by raising taxes on the wealthy.
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Clinton's criticism of Sanders' plan for raising taxes represents the traditional centrist counter to left-wing health care proposals. But Clinton also attacks Sanders' plan as giving too much discretion to the states, including those run by Republicans who may not put in place as comprehensive a system as Democrats would like.
"I've looked at the legislation that Sen. Sanders has proposed," Clinton said during the Saturday night debate between the three Democratic candidates. "And basically, he does eliminate the Affordable Care Act, eliminate private insurance, eliminates Medicare, eliminates Medicaid, Tri-care, children's health insurance program — puts it all together in a big program, which he then hands over to the state to administer."
Of course, PPACA already grants states certain discretion, a fact that has led to significant coverage disparities between states that embraced the law's expansion of Medicaid and those that rebuked it.
And Sanders campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, said that Republican governors might be less a problem if Sanders is the Democratic nominee.
"Republican governors are a problem everywhere. They're a problem with Obamacare," Weaver said, according to BuzzFeed. "You know how we deal with that problem? We nominate Bernie Sanders to be president of the United States. We bring out millions of young people, working-class people in the political process, and we sweep those people out of office."
Clinton's stated health care priority is to defend PPACA from attempts by Republicans to kill the law, either through legislation or the courts. In addition, she has promised to put in place strict monthly out-of-pocket limits for prescription drugs at $250 and allow the government to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies for Medicare.
Clinton remains the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination. She consistently leads Sanders by double-digits in national polls of Democratic voters and recent polls in Iowa, the site of the first primary contest, show her leading by similarly large margins. Sanders, however, has led in a number of polls among Democrats in New Hampshire, where the second primary will take place.
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