Mitch Perry
Jeb Bush‘s answer to the Affordable Care Act is to get an Apple Watch?
That’s what Democrats are saying Friday, criticizing him for his comments at a town hall meeting on Thursday in Tempe, Ariz. It was there he pointed to his expensive new watch when asked about health care, saying such devices can one day help people monitor not just their steps and heart rate but their specific health needs.
“On this device in five years will be applications that will allow me to manage my health care in ways that five years ago were not even possible,” he began. “I’ll have the ability, someone will, you know, because of my blood sugar, … someone will send me a signal it’ll come here, I’ll get a double beep saying ‘You just ate a butterscotch sundae or something like that. You went way over the top. You’re a diabetic, you can’t do that’ — whatever, we’ll be able to guide our own healthcare decisions in a way that will make us healthy. Ultimately, we have to get to a health system, away from a disease system.”
He then segued to attacking the ACA, saying, “To unravel this I think we need to push power back to the states. I think that we should repeal Obamacare if given the opportunity, and replace it with a consumer-directed model where people are engaged in making healthcare decisions for themselves and where they’re given the tools to do so.”
DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz responded Friday via Twitter, tweeting, “@JebBush I had cancer. There’s no app for that.”
Wasserman Schultz publicly revealed in 2009 that she is a breast cancer survivor.
Breaking out the cancer card might be a tough blow, but Democrats are pouncing on Bush’s perceived vulnerabilities in a week where he’s been blasted by the media and some of his GOP presidential opponents for his fumbling responses to going the U.S. going to war in Iraq in 2003.
