OnTheIssuesLogo

Herman Cain on Health Care

Republican Businessman & Talk-Show Host


Medicare cost 9 times its originally promised cost

GINGRICH [to Cain]: Medicare pays between $70-120 billion a year to crooks, like dentists who file 982 procedures a day. The Super Committee is not looking at this, because it requires thinking about Government, and getting people in Washington to THINK is a very big challenge.

CAIN: I am supposed to have a minute to disagree with Gingrich, but I don't. So I would like to instead to add a historical perspective. Medicare started in 1965 and our government told us it would cost $6 billion to rollout, and we were told that by 1990 it would cost $12 billion. But in 1990, it actually cost $109 billion. IT WAS A 900% MISS. How many businesses can survive missing a target like this. I believe as Speaker Gingrich believes that we can't reshuffle Medicare or Medicaid, we must RESTRUCTURE. A guiding principle in the Ryan Plan that I love is that if you want to solve a problem, you must go to the source closest to the problem. It is not Washington DC; it is the states; it is the patients.

Source: Head-to-head debate between Herman Cain & Newt Gingrich , Nov 5, 2011

DC can't solve healthcare costs; use market driven ideas

CAIN: We have the best healthcare in the world. We have a healthcare cost problem. In order to solve the healthcare cost problem, we must use market driven patient centered approaches. Talk to doctors. You cannot micromanage healthcare costs out of DC. Every program we have had out of DC has failed. What we have to do is unravel the system with market driven ideas--open healthcare savings accounts, allow association health plans. Another thing doctors would like is loser-pay laws at the state and federal level. That's what's driving up malpractice insurance. A loser pays law is a big step in health reform.

GINGRICH: I think that the mess of the health system is an everything problem. It is federal, state, doctor, patient problem. The person receiving services isn't paying so they don't value it. The person writing the checks thinks the doctor is a crook.

Source: Head-to-head debate between Herman Cain & Newt Gingrich , Nov 5, 2011

Block grants to states & partial vouchers to people

Q: What about Medicaid?

GINGRICH: We need genuine block grants so states can decide how best they should handle matters.

CAIN: I absolutely agree with block granting to states. The states know better how to use their resources to provide the greatest amount of help to their citizens. Medicaid has gotten states hooked on it like crack. We have to break the crack habit with block grants. The states over time will have more flexibility. We should not cut them off cold turkey, but we need to start to end the dependency of states on Washington bureaucracy. We need to end the mandates to the states and let the states decide. I believe in going from an entitlement society to an empowerment society. Help people to help themselves. No entitlement programs: teach people to fish, not give them fish. I would support a voucher system but not if a voucher would pay all the costs. People need skin in the game, otherwise they will ask how much more the government will give them.

Source: Head-to-head debate between Herman Cain & Newt Gingrich , Nov 5, 2011

If ObamaCare were in effect in 2006, I'd be dead of cancer

Q: You are a survivor of stage 4 colon and liver cancer. But you say if Obamacare had been in effect, you would dead now. Why?

CAIN: The reason I said that I would be dead under Obamacare is because my cancer was detected in March of 2006. All the way to the end of 2006, I was able to get the necessary CAT scan tests, get a second opinion, get chemotherapy, get surgery, recuperate from surgery, get more chemotherapy, all in a span of nine months. If we had been under Obamacare and a bureaucrat was trying to tell me when I could get that CAT scan that would have delayed by treatment. My surgeons and doctors have told me that because I was able get the treatment as fast as I could, based upon my timetable and not the government's timetable; that's what saved my life, because I only had a 30% chance of survival. This is one of the reasons I believe a lot of people are objecting to Obamacare, because we need get bureaucrats out of the business of trying to micromanage health care in this nation.

Source: 2011 GOP Google debate in Orlando FL , Sep 22, 2011

First, repeal ObamaCare; second, patient-centered reforms

Q: What is your plan to reduce the cost of health care so that our insurance premiums and other related costs can also be reduced?

CAIN: First, repeal Obamacare in its entirety. Secondly, pass market-driven, patient-centered reforms such as deductibility of health insurance premiums regardless of who pays for it. Secondly, the other thing that we can do in order to help bring down the costs is pass loser-pay laws. Doctors will tell you that one of their biggest expenses is medical liability insurance because of frivolous lawsuits. Secondly, restructure Medicare, another big cost that's passed on to us as consumers related to all the bureaucracy associated with that. Another market-driven idea, allow association health plans. When I ran the National Restaurant Association, we wanted to design a system for health insurance that was going to be customized for our industry. We could not do that. We need to be allowed to do that, and so should other organizations and other associations.

Source: 2011 GOP Tea Party debate in Tampa FL , Sep 12, 2011

Focus on controlling costs and choosing doctors

Q: Do you have a plan to replace Obamacare, not just repeal it?

A: I would promote a healthcare plan that would focus on controlling costs, and it would certainly allow individuals to choose Doctors. A the private sector would be key in a Herman Cain healthcare plan. Governmental regulation is not the way.

Source: 2011 Republican primary debate on Twitter.com , Jul 21, 2011

ObamaCare is health care "deform": repeal & replace

President Obama and the liberals in Congress have dismantled the free market health care system and replaced it with health care "deform." Under the guise of making health care a "right" for all people, President Obama and the liberals in Congress instead extended the tentacles of government, expanding their control and diminishing patients' rights. They have also made it more difficult and more expensive for doctors to practice medicine, including specialized practitioners who are desperately needed to save lives. In reality, their attempts at reforming the system have actually deformed it.

The majority of Americans agree: it's time to repeal and replace Obamacare with patient-centered, free market reforms. It's time to institute legitimate tort reforms that let doctors practice medicine without fear of frivolous lawsuits. Loser pay laws would be a great start!

Source: Campaign website, www.hermancain.com/ "Issues" , May 21, 2011

1993: Clinton health plan would negatively impact jobs

An example of actions inspiring other people was when I appeared on a nationally televised town hall meeting and challenged then-President Clinton on the flaws in his proposed health care plan. Afterward, many people wrote or called me expressing their happiness that I had asked the president the "right question." Many people went on to comment that my example had INSPIRED them to write or call their own senators or congressional representatives because they shared my views that his health care plan would have a negative impact on jobs. The restaurant industry had become mobilized against the plan because of the disproportionately large number of entry-level and first time workers hired by our industry, and the relatively high employee turnover rate. I never expected that one event to inspire so many people to speak up and to speak out.
Source: CEO of SELF, by Herman Cain, p. 81 , Aug 1, 2001

Other candidates on Health Care: Herman Cain on other issues:
Incumbents:
Pres.Barack Obama
V.P.Joe Biden
GOP Candidates:
Rep.Michele Bachmann(MN)
Herman Cain(GA)
Rep.Newt Gingrich(GA)
Gov.Jon Huntsman(UT)
Gov.Gary Johnson(NM)
Rep.Thaddeus McCotter(MI)
Rep.Ron Paul(TX)
Gov.Rick Perry(TX)
Gov.Buddy Roemer(LA)
Gov.Mitt Romney(MA)
Sen.Rick Santorum(PA)
GOP Withdrawals:
Gov.Haley Barbour(MS)
Gov.Chris Cristie(NJ)
Mayor Rudy Giuliani(NYC)
Gov.Mike Huckabee(AR)
Gov.Bobby Jindal(LA)
Gov.Sarah Palin(AK)
Gov.Tim Pawlenty(MN)
Donald Trump(NY)
Abortion
Budget/Economy
Civil Rights
Corporations
Crime
Drugs
Education
Energy/Oil
Environment
Families/Children
Foreign Policy
Free Trade
Govt. Reform
Gun Control
Health Care
Homeland Security
Immigration
Infrastructure/Technology
Jobs
Principles/Values
Social Security
Tax Reform
War/Iraq/Mideast
Welfare/Poverty





Page last updated: Feb 23, 2012