If you want to see the policy equivalent of crumbs from the table of the health care industry, read Hillary’s feeble proposals for improving ACA. Here are the relevant excerpts from her campaign website:
-
Defend the Affordable Care Act. Hillary will continue to defend the Affordable Care Act (ACA) against Republican efforts to repeal it. She'll build on it to expand affordable coverage, slow the growth of overall health care costs (including prescription drugs), and make it possible for providers to deliver the very best care to patients.
-
Lower out-of-pocket costs like copays and deductibles. The average deductible for employer-sponsored health plans rose from $1,240 in 2002 to about $2,500 in 2013. American families are being squeezed by rising out-of-pocket health care costs. Hillary believes that workers should share in slower growth of national health care spending through lower costs.
-
Reduce the cost of prescription drugs. Prescription drug spending accelerated from 2.5 percent in 2013 to 12.6 percent in 2014. It’s no wonder that almost three-quarters of Americans believe prescription drug costs are unreasonable. Hillary believes we need to demand lower drug costs for hardworking families and seniors.
-
Transform our health care system to reward value and quality. Hillary is committed to building on delivery system reforms in the Affordable Care Act that improve value and quality care for Americans.
Note that there is nothing indicating a commitment to significantly reduce the health care cost burden on average families. A close reading of these vague promises leads to the conclusion that her goal is to make things worsen at a slower rate. That’s what “slow the growth of overall health care costs” means. Note also the absence of any measurable commitments for improvement. This is nothing but a pile of weasel words designed to cover up an unwillingness to deliver meaningful financial relief to Americans saddled with a grotesquely complicated, inefficient, and unfair health care system.
Sanders is offering Americans a sharp reduction in medical care costs, bringing our system in line with the far more efficient arrangements of most other advanced nations. Hillary is offering us crumbs and pretending that it is a cake.