Going to the polls in South Carolina today, Democrat voters have a lot to think about, especially about their lack of health care. With former Vice President Joe Biden (D-Del) counting on the poor-and-middle class black vote, recent polls show that South Carolina voters are disproportionately concerned about under-insurance and rising health care costs. Only Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has his Medicare-for-all plan, promising to cover every man, woman and child in the U.S. Bernie’s plan doesn’t actually eliminate private insurance because Medicare typically covers only 80%, relying on private insurers to make up the 20% difference. So when anyone says Bernie wants to end private insurance, it’s blatantly untrue, considering Medicare only pays for 80%. Bernie was slammed by former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg in the Feb. 25 South Carolina debate for not saying how he’d pay of Medicare-for-all.
Buttigieg hurt himself politically going after his Party’s front-runner, because whether or not Bernine’s plan is realistic, it addresses the needs of ordinary Americans currently stuck with bad health insurance, with too little coverage, too high deductibles and co-payments. Bernie bristled when Buttigieg slammed his plan for causing a $25 trillion budget deficit to pay for Medicare for all. Bernie plans to pay for the plan by a combination of taxing corporations, billionaires, multi-millionaires, together with taking a large payroll deduction to pay for the plan. Instead of ripping Bernie’s plan or promising better Obamacare in the future, Bernie’s rivals should see the logic of covering all Americans in a plan that currently works. South Carolina voters go to the polls today asking themselves who, among the candidates, is looking out for their welfare, not whether it can be done.
South Carolina voters have the biggest health care debt in the country., exceeding 32%, according to an Urban Institute study. Jaime Harrison, the Democrat candidate running against Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), confirmed that health care in the No. 1 concern among South Carolina voters, hinting that Sanders may do better in the state than recent polls indicate. South Carolina voters know that Graham introduced legislation to repeal Obamacare, without any replacement. “These are everyday people,” Harrison said. “They aren’t Democrats or Republicans, they’re not black or white—they ‘re everybody. We have figure this out. There is an important federal role in this process. We need to figure it out in a way that is not partisan.” Graham was part of the state’s refusal to expand Medicaid coverage for the poor, rejecting some $10,5 billion in federal funds for 250,000 poor South Carolina residents.
Bernie’s plan to insure everyone appeals to the vast majority of South Carolina Democrat voters. South Carolina lawmakers refused federal Medicaid funds because it required a 10% state match, something the state refused to do. As a result, South Carolina residents have a higher percentage of un-or-under-insured residents, leaving 250,000 poor residents vulnerable. “If they’re looking at it with any kind of objective common sense, they can’t say it’s working will,” said Democrat state Sen. Brad Hutto about Republicans’ mistakes. When you consider that more low-income residents vote today in the primary, it certainly favors Bernie, who has addressed the health care issue head on. Raising objective because of costs is not what voters want to hear, especially because that the same excuses given originally for Social Security in 1935, Medicare and Medicaid in 1965.
No other candidate other than Bernie has put health care front-and-center of his campaign. Billionaire Tom Steyer (D-Calif.) seems consumed with Climate Change, something that’s on the back burner for most poor South Carolina residents. Bernie talks about bread-and-butter issues, those that face ordinary citizens, struggling to make ends meet, when health care costs bury South Carolina residents in debt. Medicare-for-all advocate Wendell Porter, has spent well into double figures educating South Carolina residents about the advantages of Medicare-for-all. Porter said Obama’s Affordable Care Act [ACA], helped residents but didn’t go far enough. Porter says Biden’s plan to improve ACA doesn’t go far enough to defray health care costs now plaguing South Carolina residents. Poor and middle-income voters have health care on their minds heading to the polls today.
Today’s vote in South Carolina could be a referendum on health care, more than typical racial issues for the African American community. If voters have health care on their mind, Sanders should do much better than expected in recent polls. Harrison believes that health care drives the 2020 vote for Democrats in South Carolina. Whether she can use that to defeat three-term U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). Unlike the Democrat primary, there’s a more even number of black-and-white voters, something today that leans black. “People and dying here, and so many more are hurting,” said wheel chair-bound South Carolina resident Elizabeth Jones. Jones took the stage Feb. 25 at South Carolina State University with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and singer John Legend. Jones contends that something must be done to cover South Carolina residents, something that Bernie promises.
