Donald Trump has vowed to repeal and replace Obamacare, but one 2016 candidate thinks his healthcare plan is akin to basically the same thing.
During an interview Monday, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush pressed that Trump’s healthcare plan, outlined Sunday night on “60 Minutes,” is very much in the mold of Obamacare, which Republicans universally loathe.
“He’s talking about, effectively, having the government guarantee healthcare insurance for everybody. That sounds kind of like Obamacare to me. But it’ll be better and it’ll be bigger and it’ll be fancier or whatever,” Bush told radio host Mike Gallagher. “The simple fact is that he’s going to have to be held to account — he’s the front-runner. He has to be held to the same standard that all the other candidates are.”
The 2016 hopeful told the host that while Obamacare needs to be repealed, it should be replaced with a package that is up to date.
“We need to repeal it and replace it with something that is much more relevant to the 21st century,” Bush explained. “Where it’s portable, low-premium, catastrophic coverage, and where people have a chance to make more of their healthcare decisions directly with their doctor.”
Bush’s comments come a day after Trump told CBS’ Scott Pelley that he is “going to take care of everybody” with healthcare, adding that the government will end up paying for all of it.
“Everybody’s gotta be covered,” Trump said. “This is an un-Republican thing for me to say because there’s a lot of times they say, ‘No, no, the lower 25 percent can’t afford private [insurance].'”
“I am going to take care of everybody,” Trump said Sunday night. “I don’t care if it costs me votes or not. Everybody’s going to be taken care of much better than they’re taken care of now.”
“The government’s going to pay for it. But we’re going to save so much money on the other side,” Trump said. “But for the most, it’s going to be a private plan and people are going to be able to go out and negotiate great plans with lots of different competition, with lots of competitors, with great companies and they can have their doctors, they can have plans, they can have everything.”
