Hillary Clinton said that building on Obamacare would be one of her first three priorities upon taking office were she elected president.
During the opening moments of the NBC-Youtube Democratic debate in South Carolina, Clinton said that upon taking office, she would push to install a cap on prescription drug costs. Clinton has repeatedly criticized the pharmaceutical industry for “price gouging.”
However, the move doesn’t go as far as Sanders’ plan to expand Medicare into a federally run single-payer healthcare program.
Sanders issued a plan a few hours before the debate, proposing tax hikes on the wealthy to pay for the expansion of Medicare.
Sanders and Clinton both sparred throughout Sunday. Clinton wondered during CBS’ “Face the Nation” if Sanders’ plan would give too much power to the states and lead to Americans losing their coverage under Obamacare.
Sanders’ plan would be federally run, a point that Clinton’s camp tacitly pointed out on Twitter.
Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill accused Sanders’ camp in a tweet of changing the policy to address Clinton’s concerns.
Sanders Camp said our concerns were unfounded. Then changed the policy to address those concerns… #DetailsMatter https://t.co/7lvvMDeL2J
— Nick Merrill (@NickMerrill) January 18, 2016
