Republican candidate answers to questions on health care
Note: This report covers only the first "undercard debate." A report on the second ten-candidate debate will follow.
The first republican candidate debate on August 6th featured former Texas Governor Rick Perry, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, Carly Fiorina, Former Governor of New York George Pataki, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, and former Virginia Governor, Jim Gilmore. A full transcript of this debate can be found here.
Several health care matters were addressed in response to questions from the moderators and in statements from the candidates. None offered detailed policies and there was a general agreement that the Affordable Care Act had to go, that Medicaid and other entitlements and regulations had to be not just trimmed but slashed, that abortions needed to halted, and that Planned Parenthood needed to be defunded. No surprises there. Look for all of those points to be repeated in future debates, on the campaign trail, in the Republican Party platform, in convention speeches and in those commercials, mailings, and phone calls that will arrive with the election season. As I write, we are only 458 days away from that election. Get ready, folks!
Here are a few of the most interesting remarks from the candidates and some links to illuminate the statements they offered..
Governor Rick Perry kicked things off by asking about Republican candidate businessman Donald Trump "How can you run for the Republican nomination and be for single- payer health care?" Is Trump a single-payer supporter? We'll leave it to his team to give the latest answer but in the meantime, you might want to take a look here.
The candidates attacked both Democratic party candidate Hillary Clinton and President Barak Obama for "Obamacare" and pledged to repeal the Affordable Care Act as part of a more general move against federal government entitlements.
Senator Graham stated, in regards to Hillary Clinton "She's not going to repeal 'Obamacare' and replace it and I will." Presidential candidates of all parties love to claim they'll take office and repeal various laws. A quick glance at the Constitution will explain why they won't be able to do it: repeals begin in Congress. Here is a quick primer.
Understanding the rules and policies within the Affordable Care Act posed a challenge to some of the candidates. Senator Santorum spoke up in favor of health savings accounts saying, "It's a private-sector solution that believes in freedom, not Obamacare that believes in government control." In fact, Affordable Care Act plans can be paired with Health Savings Accounts. The information is here. Santorum also called for Medicaid, and other federal entitlements he named to have work requirements and time limits. How exactly is that going to work given that children are the biggest group of Medicaid recipients (48 percent) and many other Medicaid recipients are elderly, disabled, pregnant, and low-income parents. Candidates may want to prepare for the next debates, and yes, there are many in the coming months, by reading this helpful report about Medicaid from the Kaiser Family Foundation.
The Kaiser Report also addresses issues of Medicaid expansion, something raised in a debate question about Governor Kasich's decision to accept federal money for Medicaid expansion. Governor Jindal gave a lengthy reply, "If we were to expand Medicaid, for every uninsured person we would cover, we'd kick more than one person out of private insurance or remove their opportunity to get private insurance. There is a better way to provide health care. The Oregon study showed this. Simply expanding Medicaid does not improve health care outcomes. In Louisiana, instead we're helping people getting better paying jobs so they can provide for their own health care." He might do well to read a report from Families USA that explains how accepting federal Medicaid dollars can give more than 362,000 uninsured Louisianans—56% of them working and others who are disabled, students, non-working spouses and others who have left the workforce-- access to affordable health insurance."
Governor Pataki said that he would not have expanded Obamacare in New York, presumably meaning he would not have accepted federal Medicaid funds. He and others might want to review the fiscal advantages of Medicaid expansion as reported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation here.
Planned Parenthood, under attack after a series of videos regarding the sale of fetal tissue was a target for many of the candidates who pledged to halt its funding. Governor Pataki, the only pro-choice candidate, said he would defund Planned Parenthood, put in place an absolute ban on any taxpayer dollars ever being used to fund abortions and would pass legislation outlawing abortion after 20 weeks. Governor Jindal, responding to a question that began by noting that Carly Fiorinia would go so far as to shut down the government over the issue of defunding Planned Parenthood, stated "I guarantee under President Jindal, January 2017, the Department of Justice and the IRS and everybody else that we can send from the federal government will be going in to Planned Parenthood…Absolutely, we need to defund Planned Parenthood. In my own state, for example, we launched an investigation, asked the FBI to cooperate. We just, earlier this week, kicked them out of Medicaid in Louisiana as well, canceled their provider contract. They don't provide any abortions in Louisiana." Senator Graham, responding to a question about the war on women, answered "I don't think it's a war on women for all of us as Americans to stand up and stop harvesting organs from little babies. Let's take the money that we would give to Planned Parenthood and put it in women's health care without having to harvest the organs of the unborn. The only way we're going to defund Planned Parenthood is have a pro-life president." The Politifact organization provides some useful information about the law regarding fetal tissue research and Planned Parenthood here.
A post will be looking at the answers provided by the candidates in the second debate will be posted soon. The Democratic candidates will be debating on October 13th and we'll be watching for their answers.
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