The Slatest

Bernie Sanders Unveils New HIV/AIDS Plan. Why Now? (Just Kidding.)

Bernie Sanders speaks to guests during a rally on the campus of Michigan State University on March 2 in East Lansing, Michigan.

Scott Olson/Getty Images

Hillary Clinton spent the weekend doing damage control after she suggested Friday that Ronald and Nancy Reagan deserved to be praised for bravely “start[ing] a national conversation” about HIV and AIDS, a retelling of history that was woefully inaccurate and offensive to boot. Her Democratic rival, meanwhile, didn’t miss the chance to score a few political points.

“I just don’t know what she was talking about,” Bernie Sanders told CNN on Sunday. “In fact, that was a very tragic moment in modern American history. There were many, many people dying of AIDS, and in fact, there was demand all over this country for President Reagan to start talking about this terrible tragedy. And yet he refused to talk about it while the AIDS epidemic was sweeping this country. So, I’m not quite sure where Secretary Clinton got her information. I’m glad she apologized, but the truth is it was not President Reagan and Nancy Reagan who were leaders in talking about this issue. Quite the contrary.”

Sanders wasn’t done there. The Vermont senator also used the opportunity to unveil a policy proposal to combat HIV/AIDS that managed to thread together two of his favorite hobby horses: access to health care and the rising costs of prescription medication. “One of the great moral issues of our day is that people with HIV and AIDS are suffering and, in some cases, dying in America because they can’t afford to pay the outrageous prices being charged for the medicine they need to live,” Sanders said in a statement accompanying the plan.

Bernie’s multipronged proposal promises “virtually universal access” to HIV/AIDS drugs “as soon as they are approved for sale,” along with the expansion of existing federal efforts like the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program. The most attention-grabbing part of his plan, though, is his call to replace the country’s current medical patent system with a multibillion-dollar fund that would incentivize drug development by handing out up to $3 billion in prizes each year:

The Prize Fund would reward medical researchers and developers of medicines based primarily upon the added therapeutic value a new treatment offers and the number of people it benefits. Instead of a system where the market is manipulated to keep out all competition, companies would be rewarded for their innovation with a cash prize for their medical innovations, rather than through the grant of a monopoly. Under Bernie’s plan, drugs would have generic competition immediately after FDA approval.

In other words, this plan would break the link between drug development and the rewards for medical research and development. In doing so, we will reward true innovation, eliminate the market incentive for copycat drugs and get all HIV/AIDS treatments to the people who need them at generic prices.

Before Clinton’s unforced error, she and her allies would have likely dismissed such an idea as unrealistic and tried to move on—but given the historical fiction she put forward about the Reagans and the AIDS epidemic, such a move would now be both awkward and politically risky. It remains to be seen how much Hillary’s words will ultimately hurt her campaign, but, I suppose, she can at least console herself knowing that her tone-deaf comments helped to start a conversation.

Read more of Slate’s coverage of the Democratic primary.