Rick Santorum on Health Care Republican Jr Senator (PA)

Give Medicare same options and opt-out as Congress

SANTORUM: I hear this all the time: "We should have the same kind of health care the members of Congress have." Well, that's pretty much what Paul Ryan's plan is. The members of Congress have a premium support model. So does every other federal employee. The federal government has a whole bunch of different options available. If you want a more expensive plan, you pay more of a co-insurance. If you want a less expensive plan, you don't. But fundamental difference between Barack Obama's: it's whether you believe people can be free to make choices or whether you have to make decisions for them. And I believe seniors, just like every other American, should be free to make the choices in their healthcare plan that's best for them.

Promote Health Savings Accounts as market-based solution

SANTORUM: Well, I've said repeatedly that we should have had a funding mechanism. In that bill, we had health savings accounts, something I'd been fighting for, for 15 years. We also had Medicare Advantage to transform the entire Medicare system into Medicare Advantage is basically a premium support type model.

Q: Were you advancing socialism, though?

SANTORUM: Medical health savings accounts is an anti-socialistic idea to try to build a bottom-up, consumer-based economy in health care. The same way with Medicare Advantage. And we also structured the Medicare Part D benefit to be a premium support model as a way of trying to transition Medicare. So there were a lot of good things in that bill. There was one really bad thing. We didn't pay for it, we should have paid for it and that was a mistake.

Liberal states won't waive ObamaCare; we must repeal it

Private sector insurance works, even for Medicare

SANTORUM: I think we have to keep a prescription drug component, but we have to pay for it. In other words, we have to have a program that is funded. Now, the reason that that program has actually worked well--it's come in 40% under budget--is because it's a program that uses private sector insurance, not government-run, one-size-fits-all health care. If we do that for the rest of Medicare, which is what the Ryan proposal suggests, then we would be able to have a prescription drug program and we'd be able to have Medicare that you choose.

Mandatory inoculations of children is wrong

PERRY: It was. If I had it to do over again, I would have gone to the legislature.

SANTORUM: We need to hear what Gov. Perry's saying. He believes that what he did was right. He thinks he went about it the wrong way. I believe your policy is wrong. Why do we inoculate people with vaccines in public schools? Because we're afraid of those diseases being communicable betwee people at school. [HPV is not communicable at school]. There is no government purpose served for having little girls inoculated at the force and compulsion of the government. This is big government run amok. It is bad policy, and it should not have been done.

PERRY: I passed parental notification [in that] piece of legislation. We were all about trying to save young people's lives.

SANTORUM: Then give the parents the opt-in, but do not force them to have this inoculation.

If we let states mandate insurance, sterilization is ok too

PAUL: The federal government can't go in and prohibit the states from doing bad things. And I would consider that a very bad thing, but they do have that leeway under our Constitution.

SANTORUM: This is the 10th Amendment run amok. We have Ron Paul saying, oh, whatever the states want to do under the 10th Amendment's fine. So if the states want to pass polygamy, that's fine. If the states want to impose sterilization, that's fine. No, our country is based on moral laws. There are things the states can't do. Abraham Lincoln said the states do not have the right to do wrong. I respect the 10th Amendment, but we are a nation that has values. We are a nation that was built on a moral enterprise, and states don't have the right to tramp over those because of the 10th Amendment.

First Executive Order: suspend ObamaCare

A: To suspend all spending on the implementation of Obamacare. Thank you for this opportunity & for fighting for Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Happiness. I wish the other candidates were here. Please join the fight to save our country at ricksantorum.com

2006: Targeted by trial lawyers for his malpractice reform

He has consistently pushed for medical malpractice reform in an effort to drive down the cost of medicine. In 2006, he sponsored a bill to cap non-economic damages related to obstetrical and gynecological services. For his efforts, the Trial Lawyers of America PAC ran misleading television ads against him during his 2006 re-election campaign.

Little or no benefit from negotiating Medicare Rx prices

A: The competition in the Medicare program is working-the cost of monthly premiums is nearly 40% lower than original estimates. The CBO estimates that there would be little if any potential savings from the federal government negotiating prices for most drugs. The experiences of our foreign neighbors illustrate that pharmaceutical manufacturers often delay the launch of a new drug product rather than accept a low price in countries that have government price controls. If the federal government intervened and negotiated pharmaceutical prices, it is likely that Medicare beneficiaries’ access to drugs would be hindered, with little to no reduction in prices.

Sex outside of monogamy has consequences of STDs & abortion

Voted YES on limiting medical liability lawsuits to $250,000.

Proponents of the motion recommend voting YEA because:
• Many doctors have had to either stop practicing medicine due to increased insurance premiums.
• Patients are affected as well--due to rising malpractice rates, more and more patients are not able to find the medical specialists they need.
• The cost of medical malpractice insurance premiums are having wide-ranging effects. It is a national problem, and it is time for a national solution.
• I am pleased that S. 22 extends liability protections to all health care providers and institutions.
• These bills are a commonsense solution to a serious problem, and it is time for us to vote up or down on this legislation.

Opponents of the motion recommend voting NAY because:
• We have virtually no evidence that caps on economic damages will actually lower insurance rates. And in my view, these caps are not fair to victims.
• If we want to reduce malpractice insurance premiums we must address these problems as well as looking closely at the business practices of the insurance companies. What we shouldn't do is limit the recovery of victims of horrible injury to an arbitrarily low sum.
• This is obviously a complicated issue. This is the kind of issue that needs to be explored in depth in our committees so that a consensus can emerge. So I will vote no on cloture, and I hope that these bills will go through committees before we begin floor consideration of this important topic.

Voted NO on expanding enrollment period for Medicare Part D.

Voted NO on increasing Medicaid rebate for producing generics.

Voted NO on negotiating bulk purchases for Medicare prescription drug.

Voted NO on $40 billion per year for limited Medicare prescription drug benefit.

Voted NO on allowing reimportation of Rx drugs from Canada.

Voted NO on allowing patients to sue HMOs & collect punitive damages.

Voted YES on funding GOP version of Medicare prescription drug benefit.

Voted NO on including prescription drugs under Medicare.

Voted YES on limiting self-employment health deduction.

Voted NO on increasing tobacco restrictions.

Voted YES on Medicare means-testing.

Voted NO on blocking medical savings acounts.

Rated 0% by APHA, indicating a anti-public health voting record.

The American Public Health Association (APHA) is the oldest and largest organization of public health professionals in the world, representing more than 50,000 members from over 50 occupations of public health. APHA is concerned with a broad set of issues affecting personal and environmental health, including federal and state funding for health programs, pollution control, programs and policies related to chronic and infectious diseases, a smoke-free society, and professional education in public health.

The following ratings are based on the votes the organization considered most important; the numbers reflect the percentage of time the representative voted the organization's preferred position.