AP FACT CHECK: Trump wrong on Clinton and health care

WASHINGTON – A claim from the second presidential debate and how it stacks up with the facts:

DONALD TRUMP: “She (Clinton) wants to go to a single-payer plan, which would be a disaster…she wants to go to single-payer, which means the government basically rules everything.”

THE FACTS: It’s Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders — not Clinton — who supports a Canada-style government-run health care system.

While Clinton’s health care proposals would expand the government’s role in the health care system, she’s not talking about dismantling the current system, which is a hybrid of employer-sponsored coverage, government programs like Medicare and Medicaid, and individually purchased insurance.

As president, Clinton would push for a government-sponsored insurance plan in the health care markets created by President Barack Obama’s health care law, as an alternative to private insurance. But those markets currently cover about 11 million people, while about 155 million have job-based coverage.

In excerpts from Clinton’s paid speeches she gave behind closed doors, Clinton praised Canada’s universal coverage and said that single-payer systems were “as good or better” when it came to basic medical care. But she also noted drawbacks of such health care systems, such as longer wait times for procedures.

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Contributed by Associated Press writer Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar.

EDITOR’S NOTE _ A look at the veracity of claims by political figures