Jacob Ogles
Democratic Presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg unveiled his own health care reform agenda on Thursday.
The former New York City Mayor bills his proposals as “achievable reforms” to help all Americans obtain health coverage.
“No one should have to forgo care because they don’t have insurance, and no one should face hardships because of medical bills,” Bloomberg said.
The billionaire unrolled his plan in Memphis on the same day he was set to open a Tennessee campaign headquarters.
Bloomberg noted that much of his plan would mark a return to former President Barack Obama’s policies reversed by President Donald Trump.
“President Trump has spent three years sabotaging the Affordable Care Act and offering nothing in return but empty promises,” Bloomberg said. “We will reverse the president’s attacks on the Affordable Care Act, reach universal coverage, reduce costs for all Americans, increase support for rural communities, and fix our broken healthcare system once and for all.”
The Bloomberg campaign outlined a four-prong strategy to make health insurance affordable for those receiving it through employers or the federally run health care marketplace.
The plan includes tax credits for those whose health insurance premiums amount to 8.5% or more of their income. This would impact an estimated 2.4 million people who cannot afford coverage now, the campaign said.
Second, Bloomberg wants to open the health care marketplace subsidies to those with employer-available insurance available but still pay exorbitant amounts. That could assist an estimated 6 million.
Third, the plan proposes a permanent federal reinsurance program for the individual market, something that could reduce premiums by up to 10%, the campaign said.
Finally, Bloomberg wants an expansive outreach campaign that gets the estimated 7.5 million eligible for Medicaid or CHIP for free or discount rates but have yet to enroll signed up. That could also reach some 4.7 million eligible for Bronze level plans in the marketplace.
Bloomberg put out the plan as part his “Done It Before” campaign touting his policy accomplishments during hist time running America’s largest city.
During Bloomberg’s 2002-2013 tenure, the number of New Yorkers without insurance dropped from 1.8 million to 927,000. The number of uninsured children declined from 288,000 to 82,000.
