The campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders accused rival Hillary Clinton’s team of engaging in a “series of vicious and coordinated attacks” aimed at confusing Iowa caucus-goers into thinking he would scrap government-sponsored healthcare programs.
“We have made tremendous gains in Iowa, but if we lost because Hillary Clinton’s campaign scared voters into thinking Bernie’s plan would cost them their coverage, it could set our vision for universal healthcare back at least a generation,” campaign manager Jeff Weaver said in a fundraising email Friday.
Clinton and her surrogates, including daughter Chelsea, have charged in recent days that the Vermont independent wants to dismantle Obamacare. They point to the fact that Sanders favors adopting a Canadian-style single-payer healthcare system instead.
“Basically what he’s doing is saying, ‘Hey, we need to start all over again. Let’s tear [the Affordable Care Act] up and replace it,” Clinton told reporters Friday. She added that the charges were “actually founded in what we can discern about what he would do” as president.
Sanders’ campaign has countered that those accusations are intended to confuse people into thinking that he would scrap government healthcare entirely, when instead he wants to create an even more expansive program.
“Here is the truth: Bernie’s plan would guarantee healthcare as a right for every man, woman and child, and it would be implemented in every state in the country regardless of who is governor,” Weaver said.
The exchange reflects the tightening of the Democratic primary race. Clinton held a 30-point lead nationally as recently as last month, but is now ahead of Sanders by just single digits. Polls show that the Iowa caucus is a tossup and that Sanders is ahead in the New Hampshire primary.
