Even now that Donald Trump is the presumptive GOP nominee and Hillary Clinton is nearly assured the Democratic nomination, it is unclear how the debate over health care will proceed in this thoroughly unconventional presidential election year.
Trump has said that Obamacare is a "disaster," which he will replace with "something much better," but what he has proposed is vague and dismissed by experts as infeasible. Trump, who tends to shift positions easily, may very well pivot in one direction or another on the issue in the coming months.
Just as important, Clinton faces pressure from left wing voters, whose demands for a major overhaul of the health care system (perhaps single payer?) have been emboldened by Bernie Sanders' campaign.
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"I think frankly Bernie's campaign has stirred it up," U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott, D-WA, told the Associated Press.
Indeed, recent polls have shown that an increasing number of Democrats view the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) unfavorably because they believe it did not go far enough in expanding coverage and lowering costs.
A recent survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 51 percent of Democrats want the PPACA to be "expanded." Although what that expansion would entail is not clear, a plausible interpretation would be greater government spending to further expand Medicaid eligibility or to increase subsidies for those who purchase insurance through the PPACA exchanges.
And a recent Pew Research poll found that support for the PPACA declined by 12 percent among Democratic-leaning independents since a similar poll taken last summer.
While Clinton has not proposed any dramatic expansion of the PPACA, she has floated a proposal aimed at reducing prescription drug costs. Under her plan, out-of-pocket costs on prescription drugs would be subject to a monthly limit of $250.
But she has also vehemently rejected Sanders' contention that the U.S. must embrace a system similar to that of most other western countries, arguing that the best way forward is to build upon the PPACA.
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