Health Care Is On Coloradans’ Minds. This Is Where The 2020 Presidential Candidates Stand – Colorado Public Radio

George McHenry, 78, lives in Federal Heights and is also worried about prescription drug costs.A few years back, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He takes hormone treatments, which would cost more than $10,000 a month if he werent on Medicare.But McHenry, a reliably Democratic voter, considers himself lucky.

I'm aware that a lot of seniors cannot afford the cost of either drugs or care, McHenry said. And I think that's really terrible.

Maureen OMara-Sanzo, a 73-year-old from Highlands Ranch, describes herself as a conservative-liberal, or a liberal-conservative.Shes retired from the roofing industry and says her health and health care coverage Medicare, plus supplemental coverage are pretty good.But she worries about all the people who dont have health coverage they can afford and thinks people need more affordable insurance options.

It's a very crucial issue for people in terms of living and dying, she said.

President Donald Trump has promised to essentially defend the private insurance system.Hes staked out a position in opposition to Democrats, promoting an expansion of private Medicare advantage plans.

Last fall in Florida, Trump signed an executive order before a sign reading Great Health Care for You, to expand what medical savings accounts or MSAs, which some Medicare recipients make use of. In announcing the plan, he described Democrats Medicare for All as a disaster for seniors on the program.

"They want to raid Medicare to fund a thing called socialism, he said.

The Trump administration and its Republican allies in Congress have taken a number of steps to circumvent the Affordable Care Act.As NPR described last year, Republicans ditched the individual mandate, the requirement people get health coverage pay a penalty. The provision aimed to keep more healthy people insured in order to keep premiums low.

"We eliminated Obamacare's horrible, horrible, very expensive and very unfair, unpopular individual mandate. A total disaster. That was a big penalty, Trump said last fall.

The administration has taken other steps:allowing states to implement work requirements to Medicaid, ending cost-sharing subsidies to insurers, and slashing federal funding to programs aimed at helping people sign up for insurance on state exchanges.

One of the biggest moves came last spring when the Justice Department threw its weight behind a lawsuit aimed at invalidating the law.

Still, the ACA has proved resilient, with signups remaining fairly steady.

Bernie Sanders backs Medicare for All.The Vermont senators plan would expand the popular federal health program and essentially get rid of private insurance.Itd provide comprehensive care for everyone, with no out-of-pocket expenses. He says the average worker pays 20 percent of their income for health costs and his proposal would cut that sharply because we're eliminating the profiteering of the drug companies. And the insurance companies and ending this Byzantine and complex administration of thousands of separate health care plans.

Sanders has been criticized for not providing more specifics of how hed pay for his plans.He estimated on 60 Minutes last weekend that the cost of his plan would be $30 trillion over a decade.But questions remain about whether projected revenues would meet projected costs.

Sanders visited Colorado earlier this month, welcomed by a boisterous crowd of 11,000. In response to the rally, Colorado Republicans jumped on Sanders signature issue. Spokesman Kyle Kohli said the party is confident Sanders would find tough footing in the general election, due his support for the universal health care measure that Colorado voters rejected soundly in 2016.

Coloradans already made it loud and clear they have zero interest in Bernie Sanders government takeover of their health care, Kohli said.

In 2016, Sanders easily won the Colorado Democratic caucuses, capturing 59 percent of the vote, prior to a major overhaul of Colorados nomination process.

Elizabeth Warren also supports Medicare for All, although she proposes a more gradual transition.

Costs are gonna go up for billionaires, the Massachusetts senator said. They're going to go out for giant corporations, and out of pocket costs for middle class families are going to go down. It's costs that matter.

When she unveiled her plan in November, Warren said it would raise $20.5 trillion, but that middle class tax increases wouldnt pay for it.Instead, the funds would come from a variety of sources, including tax increases on the rich, cuts in spending on the military and payments to doctors. She said there would be considerable savings from a more efficient national system, in which administrative costs are expected to fall significantly.

Warren said by her third year in office, she aimed to pass legislation through Congress to complete the transition to full Medicare for All.

A number of big players in the health care world, including insurers, hospitals, drug companies and doctors groups oppose the sweeping changes in the plans of both Warren and Sanders as too far-reaching and too expensive.

Both Warren and Sanders say though their plans are expensive, theyll result in significant savings for consumers overall.

Joe Biden is among the many candidates in the Democratic field who balk at the ten-of-trillions price tag of a Medicare-for-All system. One recent poll showed a majority of Americans like both ideas, but more favor the public option.

It covers everybody. It's realistic and most importantly, it lets you choose what you want, the former vice president has said about his plan. On his website he describes it as protecting and building on Obamacare.Then-President Barack Obama signed the law into effect nearly a decade ago, on March 23, 2010.

His plan includes a public option proposal, which Biden argues would help bring costs down, without the disruption to the health system and patient care of Medicare for All. And it would give consumers a choice.

Bidens proposals echo those of some of the other candidates in the middle with goals like giving every American access to affordable health insurance, by expanding Medicare, promising a less complex system, and standing up to what his website describes as abuse of power by prescription drug corporations.Hed do that by letting Medicare directly negotiate drug prices and allowing for generally cheaper prescription drugs to be imported from Canada.

His approach has critics as well, as Politico reported when his plan was unveiled. Some progressives view the improvements hes aiming for as too cautious and incremental.Republicans blasted his plan as Obamacare 2.0, and a group of major health associations fretted that Medicare expansion would hurt hospital bottom lines.

Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire former New York mayor, has also come out as sharply critical of the more ambitious progressive push to expand health coverage. Medicare for All doesn't work because about 155 million people in America get their insurance from their employer. They want to keep it, Bloomberg told CPRs Colorado Matters earlier in February.

The hospitals and the doctors want to make sure that's still there as well because that's what subsidizes the people who are getting paid for by Medicaid and Medicare. He noted unions have often fought very hard and negotiated for medical benefits so they want to make sure that they continue to do that as well.

Hes also described Medicare for All as unfeasible and likely to win over key voters Democrats would need to prevail in the fall.

His plan, like Biden and others, would create a public alternative to private insurance. His website describes it as being administered by the federal government but paid for by customer premiums It aims to expand and improve on the ACA, by reversing what his campaign calls the Trump administrations attempts at sabotage.It would do that by boosting enrollment efforts, restricting the sale of skimpy health plans that dont meet ACA requirements and defending the ACA against politically motivated lawsuits.

Like Bidens proposal, Bloomberg too has drawn criticism for being too gradual.And Democrats in Congress have already been unable to get through some of his ideas, like ending surprise medical bills and lowering drug costs.

But Bloomberg touts his skills as a businessman to explain why he could succeed.

Look, in New York, I had a Republican Senate and a Democratic House and I got gay marriage through the Republican Senate. If I can do that, I can get a health care plan through a Republican Senate at a national level, he told Colorado Matters.

Pete Buttigieg also favors a more centrist approach.He backs a public option that he says would result in coverage for everyone, but that cuts cost.

The idea of my proposal, Medicare for all who want it, is that we take a version of Medicare and make it available to anybody who wants in on it without commanding people to adopt it if they'd prefer their private plan, the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor said.

Buttigieg maintains his plan would incentivize private insurers to compete on price and bring down costs.If private insurers cant offer something dramatically better, the plan would create a natural glide-path to Medicare for All, according to his website.

To make health care more accessible, the Buttigieg plan would expand subsidies for low-income people to make insurance coverage dramatically more affordable for individuals and families.

Buttigiegs proposal has drawn fire for what critics have likened to a supercharged version of the mandate to buy insurance contained in the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare.Under his plan, those who dont have coverage would be automatically signed up in the government program, which could cost them thousands. His campaign told the Washington Post the payments are justified because it allows a consumer to be insured throughout the year.

Amy Klobuchar favors building on the ACA.According to her website, she thinks the quickest way to achieve universal health care is via a public option that expands the government programs Medicare and Medicaid.

What I favor is something that Barack Obama wanted to do from the very beginning, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) said about her proposal.

And that is a public option, a nonprofit choice that will bring down the cost of insurance.

The senator backs changes to the ACA to reduce consumer costs like making it easier for states to implement reinsurance, something Colorado launched last year with approval from the federal government.

Klobuchar stresses the importance of making prescription drugs affordable. According to her campaign site, Klobuchar has authored proposals to lift the ban on Medicare negotiations for prescription drugs.Shed also allow personal importation of safe drugs from countries like Canada, and stop pharmaceutical companies from blocking less-expensive generic products.

Some of the toughest criticism for some of the candidates comes from their rivals.For example, Warren blasted Klobuchars plan in a recent debate as being too thin, calling it a Post-it note, insert plan here.Of Buttigiegs health proposal, Warren said, Its not a plan, its a PowerPoint.