The Clinton campaign is focusing on health care this weekend
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks at Fisk University on Nov. 20, 2015, in Nashville, Tenn. (Photo: Mark Humphrey/AP)
Hillary Clinton is continuing her focus on health care tax cuts this weekend with a series of new ads and speeches.
Her pitch includes emphasis on her support for President Obama’s healthcare reform. The push shows Clinton is running on a commitment to keep Obamacare even though Republicans made opposition to the health care law a core part of their platform.
While polls show Americans are divided on Obamacare nationally, at least one recent survey showed the law is overwhelmingly popular among Democrats. And Clinton’s health care pitch also includes emphasis on a tax credit that is part of an effort to contrast her plans for the middle class with those of her main Democratic primary challenger, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
A Clinton campaign official said she will be highlighting a plan to cut taxes up to $5,000 for families with high health care costs and her commitment to preserving Obamacare in a speech in South Carolina at the Charleston Democratic Party’s “Blue Jamboree on Saturday. Though South Carolina is a southern state, a poll earlier this year showed a majority of voters there supported setting up an Obamacare exchange. However, South Carolina is not among the states that have expanded Medicaid under Obamacare.
The Clinton campaign is also releasing two new advertisements that will start airing in the early primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire next week. One features a cancer survivor talking about Obamacare’s effect on people with pre-existing conditions. The other highlights Clinton’s efforts to push for health care reform as first lady.
Clinton also focused on health care tax credits in speeches on Friday. She first began discussing the proposal in September. Clinton and her campaign have not provided many specific details about the policy, but they have characterized it as part of a platform focused on the middle class.
Sanders has mounted a surprisingly strong primary challenge to Clinton, who remains the frontrunner. His campaign has largely been focused on promising to combat income inequality. Clinton’s team has responded by arguing Sanders would raise taxes on the middle class. They have also highlighted her policies that they say would cut costs for the middle class, including the health care tax cut.
Sanders has called for a single payer “Medicare for all” universal health care program and maintained his plans can largely be paid for by increasing taxes on the extremely wealthy. The Clinton campaign has argued that Sanders’ plans would be too expensive to pay for without increasing taxes for some middle class voters.
Hillary Rodham Clinton discussed her proposal for health care tax credits on Friday in Tennessee. (Photo: Mark Humphrey/AP)
