Mook: ‘A Lot of Work To Do’ On Obamacare,’ ‘Premiums Are Going Up Too High,’ ‘A Lot of Small Businesses Are Struggling’

On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Lead,” Clinton Campaign Manager Robby Mook stated that “premiums are going up too high in some places and we need to do more to help small businesses in particular afford health insurance,” “a lot of small businesses are struggling” with affording health insurance, and “there’s a lot of work to do” on Obamacare.

Mook said, “First and foremost, over 20 million people now have health insurance today in our country because of Obamacare. We’ve got to improve it, but we’ve got to protect it. Donald Trump wants to completely rip it up, take away health insurance from those 20 million people, from the young people under 26 who get it through their parents, take away, you know, basic care — preventive care for every single American. So, we’ve got to protect Obamacare. But, what he was touching on, to your question, was that premiums are going up too high in some places and we need to do more to help small businesses in particular afford health insurance, and that’s why Hillary wants to create better tax incentives and tax credits for small businesses so that they can afford that healthcare, and create pools so that they have better bargaining power with the insurance companies.”

He added, “I think that Bill — what Bill Clinton was trying to hit on is that a lot of small businesses are struggling to afford health insurance. They can’t form big enough bargaining pools. That’s why we’ve got to get them better tax credits, allow them to pool together. Look, we also –one thing he didn’t mention is the cost of prescription drugs, which is also going up too high. We’ve got to allow Medicare to negotiate for lower prescription drug costs, and make sure that we’re doing more to lower the out of pocket expenses for everyday Americans. So, there’s a lot of work to do here. I just rattled off a lot of specific ideas that Hillary Clinton has. Donald Trump hasn’t named a specific idea on healthcare, except that he wants to repeal Obamacare altogether, and everybody agrees that would be a disaster.”

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