Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton is ready to have a “spirited” discussion with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., about the U.S. healthcare system. She just doesn’t want it to lead to “another big, national divisive debate.”
“With all due respect to Sen. Sanders, who I really do value for his intensity and his passionate advocacy, 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 said Friday on MSNBC upon being asked if her and her daughter’s recent attacks against Sanders’ support for a single-payer system were “unfounded.”
“They’re actually founded in what we can discern about what he would do,” she continued. “Sanders has consistently said he would give us details about what it would be and what it could cost … and basically he wants to start all over again with another new plan and another big, national divisive debate, which I just don’t agree with.”
Clinton also addressed a picture, shared by Sanders on social media Wednesday, that depicted the duo meeting in the early 1990s. She had signed the photograph: “To Bernie Sanders with thanks for your commitment to real health care access for all Americans…”
“The picture is from 1993 or 1994 when I thanked him for supporting universal healthcare — a goal that I held absolutely steadfastly for many years,” Clinton said.
Nowadays, Clinton said she and Sanders have a “legitimate, substantive difference” when it comes to healthcare.
“That’s part of the campaign where we need a spirited debate about our differences because people are going to start making up they minds,” she said.
