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Lucas Anderton

Mrs. Pettay

ENG 111, 2A

21 October 2016

Obamacare? Expand It or Destroy It?

Jon Stewart, political satirist, once said, You have to remember one thing about the will

of the people: it wasn't that long ago that we were swept away by the Macarena. In an election

between the lesser of two evils, it must come down to the ideological platforms of the two

candidates, Hillary R. Clinton and Donald J. Trump. In terms of the candidates positions,

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump disagree on health care priorities and reforms for the next

four to eight years.

The Democrats nominee for President of the United States, Hillary Clinton, is in favor of

a socialized, expansive health care program, expanding the work of Presidents Johnson, Clinton,

and Obama. According to Hillary Clintons website, she believes President Obama has made

remarkable progress in the fight for healthcare reform, but the fight isnt over. With the

Affordable Care Act having made health care available to an additional 20,000,000 Americans

who could not afford private-sector health care, the Democratic Party's steadfast in preserving

this law. Secretary Clinton also wants to work to bring down copays and out-of-pocket

deductibles. With cheaper deductibles and smaller copays, the average American family has to

pay less in times of trouble. Another major priority of Secretary Clinton, if she were to be
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elected, is to work on regulating pharmaceuticals. After the major price hike by Martin Shkreli

on Daraprim, an important drug in the fight to cure AIDs, Clinton made it a cornerstone of her

campaign to fight to make sure big pharma has stricter regulations so nobody loses access to

important prescription medicines, necessary for their health. However, for Americans who

cannot afford prescription medicines at their current cost, or affordable health care, Clinton

wants to work to expand the Medicaid program, created by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965.

Secretary Clinton wants to spend the next four to eight years continuing the policies of President

Obamas administration to make health care not a privilege, but a right for all Americans.

The Republican nominee for President, however, is in favor of leaving healthcare to be a

state-by-state issue and moving it back in control of the private sector. According to Mr.

Trumps website, he believes ObamaCare, a.k.a. the Patient Protection and Affordable Care

Act, is a complete failure, and that the law made health care premiums more expensive, and led

to hard-working Americans losing access to their current health care policies for new mediocre

policies. Contrary to Secretary Clintons plan to reduce prescription costs by regulating big

pharma, Mr. Trump wants to allow individuals to fully deduct health insurance premium

payments from their tax returns under the current tax system, so they end up not paying for

prescriptions at all. This policy would be beneficial because it would not infringe on the free

market principles of the pharmaceutical industry. As well, Mr. Trump wants to create Health

Savings Accounts, which individuals can deposit money into tax-free to pay for health care costs,

and that money can be passed down through inheritance without being taxed. This system is

unique because it requires no government intervention, and allows Americans to decide how

much they money they want to set aside, promoting individualism. Although Mr. Trumps plans
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are extremely different than Secretary Clintons, they take a more individualistic, self-reliant

approach that requires less government spending, but has little revisions regarding the

lower-class sector of America.

Health care reforms have been a priority of the Obama administration over the past seven

years, and public opinion is extremely polarized on the viability and effectiveness of these new

policies. Liberal progressives advocate for its expansion, arguing that the progress made over the

past seven years is crucial for the wellbeing of lower-class Americans. Fiscal conservatives argue

to tear it down, starting fresh with a state-by-state plan and letting the private sector control the

industry. Over the next four to eight years, we are going to see major changes in government

health care policy, and the two candidates, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are on opposite

ends of the spectrum in their opinions on the agenda for America.

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Works Cited

"Hillary Clinton 2016 | Hillary for America." N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2016.

"Donald J. Trump." Donald J. Trump for President. Trump Victory Fund PAC, n.d. Web. 10 Oct.

2016.