AFP/Washington


Hillary Clinton is healthy and “fit to serve” as US president, her doctor affirmed on Friday, as the Democratic White House frontrunner also revealed details about her family’s substantial personal wealth.
Tax data released by Clinton’s campaign show she and husband Bill Clinton, the former president, paid a massive $57.5mn in taxes since 2007.
Clinton did not release income figures, but by extrapolating her annual combined tax rate of about 40% over the period - she stated their 2013 tax rate at 44.6% and 2014 at 45.8%, the highest rate - it is clear the Clintons took in well over $100mn in eight years.
Physician Lisa Bardack of Mount Kisco Medical Group in New York said Clinton, 67, was enjoying a healthy lifestyle and has fully recovered from the effects of a concussion suffered in 2012 - an incident which had prompted questions about her health.
“She is in excellent physical condition and fit to serve as president of the US,” Bardack stated in a letter distributed by the Clinton team.
Her campaign said that by providing the data, Clinton became “the first presidential candidate in this election cycle” to release his or her health information.
It offered details of Clinton’s traumatic head injury in December 2012 when, according to the doctor, Clinton “suffered a stomach virus after travelling, became dehydrated, fainted, and sustained a concussion.”
An evaluation discovered a blood clot in her brain, and she experienced double vision. She was treated for the conditions, including the use of anticoagulation therapy and glasses featuring a Fresnel prism.
“Her concussion symptoms, including the double vision, resolved within two months and she discontinued the use of the prism,” Bardack said.
Follow-up testing in 2013 “revealed complete resolution of the effects of the concussion.”
Clinton’s standard laboratory test results were normal, and her cancer screening evaluations were all negative, Bardack said.
On the Clinton’s financial health, their vast wealth does not come as a surprise. The couple are the heaviest of political heavyweights, and have earned tens of millions of dollars in speaking fees.
In 2013 alone Hillary Clinton earned $8.5mn from 36 speaking engagements, according to the data released on Friday.
Bill Clinton earned at least $13mn from 41 speeches in the same period, including a trio of speeches in China over three straight days that earned him $1.7mn.
The revelations come as candidate Clinton seeks to embrace the role as fighter for America’s middle-class and downtrodden.
In June 2014, she was mocked for saying she and her husband left the White House “dead broke” and in debt in 2001.
Republican Jeb Bush released 33 years of tax returns in late June.
Those records showed that Bush, the son and brother of two presidents, has made $29mn since leaving the Florida governor’s mansion in 2007, including $7.36mn in 2013.

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