Democratic Primaries
In reply to the discussion: Biden's answer on 'repairing the legacy of slavery' and 'inequality in schools and race' [View all]Celerity
(43,370 posts)Biden DID say what Castro said he did, Biden did say BUY IN, and he did say the 'can automatically become part of this plan' and ' They can join immediately.' Biden did not (and his plan does not say it either) say they are automatically ENROLLED. The ONLY people Biden's plans states who will be automatically enrolled are the extreme poor (138% and under of the Federal poverty level). A person who loses their insurance from a job that pays above that will NOT be auto-enrolled. Do not take my word for it, go search 'enroll' and 'automatically' in his entire healthcare plan at the link. What Biden did was to try and conflate a DIFFERENT EXAMPLE (ie. where he says below IF they are eligible for MEDICAID (ie the 138% of FPL) when the conversation was NOT about only that group of extremely poor, and YES a person making more not only is not auto-enrolled, BUT they do have to BUY-IN, which is EXACTLY what Castro said.
He (Casro) was right. Biden said first they DID have to buy in (the job-loser, and he NEVER stipulated they had to only a near poverty worker), then Biden said he did not say that, but he did say it. Biden was wrong. He tried to play 'move-the-goalpost' when he was challenged by Castro. The key part is when Biden tried to claim
It is a big deal, as people eligible for Medicaid are only a relatively small percentage of the full-time or near full-time workforce, most are children, the ageing, limited part-time workers and the disabled,most of whom are not covered by an employer-based insurance plan anyway.
138% of FPL is only $16,753. If you make around 8.50 USD per hour or more and work 40 hours a week, you do not qualify. If you are a couple filing jointly it is even harder to qualify, even if you also had a child.
https://help.ihealthagents.com/hc/en-us/articles/223155407-What-are-Federal-Poverty-Levels-Used-for-
Also, Biden's own website itself says (and this is a BEST-CASE scenario) that around 10 million will remain uninsured (so it is NOT universal coverage at all) and that has been fact-checked as true.
The Transcript
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/09/13/transcript-third-democratic-debate/
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primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden