Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden repeatedly fumbled over himself on Friday while attempting to talk to a crowd about his healthcare plan, saying that he would make sure that it was “not quality” and ensuring people that their premiums would go up.
“If you’re not satisfied, you have another option, high-quality options,” Biden said while speaking at a healthcare town hall event in Hanover, NH. “The public option will be available in my plan.”
“We’ll make sure it’s not quality,” Biden said. “We’ll make sure it’s only affordable, quality that’s affordable.”
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Moments later, Biden continued, “And for folks in the working class … they will, in fact, will increase their premiums, excuse me, the will increase the generosity of the premium tax credit they now get.”
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Biden’s comments on healthcare come after he released his healthcare plan last month that’s “intended to preserve the most popular parts of Obamacare — from Medicaid expansion to protections for patients with preexisting conditions — and build on them with a new government-run public insurance option,” Politico reported. “The plan — which the campaign says will cost $750 billion over a decade, to be paid for by reversing some of the Trump administration’s tax cuts — is less transformative than the ‘Medicare for All’ proposal advanced by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and supported by some other Democrats, which would effectively do away with private insurance and shift all Americans to government-run health coverage.”
Biden’s comments also come after his wife, Jill Biden, made remarks this week about her husband that caused critics to mock him.
“Your candidate might be better on, I don’t know, healthcare than Joe is,” Jill Biden said in New Hampshire. “But you’ve got to look at who’s going to win this election and maybe you have to swallow a little bit and say, ‘Ok, I personally like so and so better.’ But your bottom line has to be that we have to beat Donald Trump.”