We’re with Hillary

Based on her record of successfully advocating for the Children’s Health Insurance Program in the 1990s, leading support for the health insurance industry reforms at the heart of the Affordable Care Act, and promising to build on the ACA’s framework of managed competition, Hillary Clinton can be entrusted to improve the health of all Americans over the next four years.

Sitting to the center of her main Democratic rival, Clinton has promised to continue down the path of the Affordable Care Act. Meanwhile, Senator Bernie Sanders proposes a single-payer system, that while successful in some countries such as Canada and Taiwan, may not be a viable option in the political and economic climate specific to the United States.

Even in Senator Sanders’ home state of Vermont, where single-payer was approved by the people, single-payer’s ultimate failure was inevitable due to the unworkable math needed to fund such an ambitious and overly comprehensive plan. A second vote on single-payer will happen in Colorado this year. While we wait to see if this idyllic policy dream can come true, in the meantime, we choose to support a pragmatic solution.

The ACA has forever changed the landscape of America’s health care in ways envisioned 38 years ago by Dr. Alain Enthoven and based on “principles of competition, multiple choice, private underwriting and management of health plans, periodic government-supervised open enrollment and equal premiums for all similar enrollees selecting the same plan and benefits.” This concept of managed competition works in many nations including Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. Hillary Clinton promises to build upon this framework and make it work in America too.

However, across the political aisle, Mr. Donald Trump threatens to repeal and replace the ACA with “something terrific.” And while Mr. Trump has expressed some desirable features in his musings about health care — such as allowing Medicare to negotiate pharmaceutical prices and stating that no one should go without coverage — his insistence on repealing the ACA’s individual mandate and destroying the subsidies to cover low income Americans is anathema to the concept of managed competition in health care.

Universal health insurance coverage is still one of the most important goals of health reform. Mr. Trump threatens to destroy health insurance coverage for 18.1 million Americans. Although Mr. Trump promises to “take care of everybody,” careful analysis of his health plan reveals that promise to be patently false.

Only Hillary Clinton promises a health care plan that will reduce the uninsured and will be immediately politically achievable.

We’re with Hillary because she wants to build on a system that works.

We’re with Hillary because she wants to end the exorbitant greed of pharmaceutical manufacturers — allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices.

We’re with Hillary because she supports evidence-based solutions to America’s gun violence problem — universal back ground checks and firearm registration.

We’re with Hillary because she supports transparency in health care — both for the quality of care delivered and on the prices patients are charged.

We’re with Hillary because she knows that patients are spending too much money on out-of-pocket costs and high-deductibles.

We’re with Hillary because her past demonstrates we can trust her with our future. She will continue to fight until every American has healthcare coverage. And she will do it in a way that is beneficial for patients, fair for doctors, and puts people over profits.