‘Shame on you’: Hillary Clinton flip flops, attacks Sanders on healthcare

Former first daughter Chelsea Clinton joined her mother, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, on the campaign trail this week to attack the single-payer healthcare plan proposed by opponent Bernie Sanders.

Even though Hillary asked "since when do Democrats attack one another on universal health care?” during a 2008 speech in response to a mailer from her opponent at the time, Barack Obama, she called the Sanders plan to cover everyone regardless of their ability to pay as a "risky deal".

The Sanders plan would destroy private insurance and drug companies, who have donated millions of dollars to Hillary’s campaigns for senate and president.

Clinton famously told candidate Obama "shame on you" in 2008, but now she’s defending his legacy healthcare program dubbed Obamacare, which delivered millions of new customers to for-profit insurance companies through its mandatory coverage clause.

Mother Jones described the new attacks as “an abrupt shift” with just a few weeks before the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary.

READ MORE: Bernie gains double-digit lead on Hillary in New Hampshire – poll

Chelsea falsely claimed that millions of people would lose coverage under the Sanders plan during a campaign stop on Tuesday in New Hampshire, where Sanders is now leading in the polls.

"Senator Sanders wants to dismantle Obamacare, dismantle the CHIP program, dismantle Medicare, and dismantle private insurance," she said. "I worry if we give Republicans Democratic permission to do that, we’ll go back to an era - before we had the Affordable Care Act - that would strip millions and millions and millions of people off their health insurance."

In fact, not only would those Americans currently covered by Obamacare continue to be protected by the Sanders plan, but it would also cover the millions of Americans who still can’t afford insurance under the so-called “Affordable Care Act”.

Sanders believes healthcare should be a human right and available to all, regardless of wealth or income.

Chelsea, on the other hand, married a former Goldman Sachs investment banker, lives in an expensive New York City condo, serves on several boards including her father’s controversial Clinton Foundation and Clinton Global Initiative, and previously worked at a hedge fund.

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Sanders voted for Obamacare, but believes it has not gone far enough to provide adequate care for all.

“Deductibles remain much too high for people,” Sanders explained on the MSNBC program Morning Joe. “The question we have to ask is, why are we paying almost three times more per capita than the folks in the UK, 50 percent more than the French, and they guarantee health care to all of their people?”

Sanders proposes Medicare for all, which he says will save taxpayers about $500 billion per year including the initial costs of transitioning from Obamacare.

He also wants to tackle pharmaceutical companies who have been accused by doctors of letting patients die for the sake of profit and donated more money to Clinton’s campaign than any other candidate from either party.

Clinton also said the Sanders plan will lead to a large tax hike to cover costs of universal healthcare, but the Vermont senator says this would be offset by the elimination of private insurance premiums.

While the former secretary of state and New York senator leads Sanders nationally by 15 points, he is polling strongly with young people. Some 68 percent of Democratic voters under the age of 24 back him versus just 26 percent backing Clinton, according to an NBC News Survey Monkey poll.