MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Hillary Rodham Clinton is proposing a tax credit to help people deal with the rising costs of health care, the first in a series of tax benefits the Democratic presidential front-runner will be rolling out in the coming weeks.
The health care credit will cover what Clinton's campaign described as "excessive" out-of-pocket expenditures. Eligible families will get up to $5,000 in credits and individuals as much as $2,500.
Clinton, who was in the midst of a campaign swing through Memphis and Nashville on Friday, has tried to create a wedge on taxes with her main rival for the nomination, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
The former secretary of state says that she is the only primary candidate committed to not raising taxes on average workers. She has accused Sanders of promoting programs that she says would raise taxes on middle-class families, including his plan for a single-payer health system based on Medicare.
Clinton has said Sanders' approach would eliminate major pieces of the health care system, including private insurance, Medicaid, the Tricare system for veterans and other coverage. Her campaign has pointed to a bill proposed by Sanders in the Senate in 2013 to create a single-payer health care system that would have increased income taxes and payroll taxes to pay for it.
Sanders says his plan would incorporate Medicare into a broader system intended to cover all Americans and wouldn't mean the government would stop paying for seniors' health care.
Under Sanders' proposal, Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program would be absorbed by the new single-payer system and be run by the states under federal rules. Private insurance companies would be sidelined to selling supplemental coverage and his plan specifies that Medicare beneficiaries would be covered during the transition.
Sanders' campaign says that his single-payer health system would save taxpayers money in the long run because it would eliminate wasteful health spending.
