Newt Gingrich on Health Care Former Republican Representative (GA-6) and Speaker of the House

Government healthcare looks into abyss & moves to tyranny

ROMNEY: No, absolutely not. That was entirely voluntary on their part.

GINGRICH: Well, the reports were that the public health department was prepared to give a waiver to Catholic hospitals about a morning-after abortion pill, and that the governor's office issued explicit instructions saying that they believed it wasn't possible under Massachusetts law. When you have government as the central provider of services, you inevitably move towards tyranny. You inevitably--and this is true whether it's RomneyCare or ObamaCare or any other government centralized system--you inevitably move towards the coercion of the state, & the state saying, "If you don't do what we, the politicians, have defined, you will be punished." That's why we are at an enormous crossroads in this country. We're now looking at an abyss that forces you to change.

Rick Santorum's healthcare stances compared to Newt's

Rick Santorum vs. Newt Gingrich on Domestic Issues

• Mandatory Sentencing
• Death Penalty
• Gun Rights
• Drugs in Society
• Environmental Protection Agency
• Environmental Risks
• Nuclear Waste
• Environment vs. Economy
• WikiLeaks
• Electromagnetic Pulse
• Transportation Policy
• Television Censorship
• Health Mandate
• Medicare
• ObamaCare

1993: I am for an individual health insurance requirement

The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. In the late 1980s, when Democrats were pushing to require employers to provide health insurance, the Foundation started thinking about ways to achieve universal coverage without placing a heavy burden on business. The Heritage Foundation suggested that every American be required to buy health insurance, a requirement known as the individual mandate.

Which politicians took up that idea?

Many Republicans did in the early 1990s, after President Clinton introduced a plan that would have forced companies to cover employees. "I am for people, individuals--exactly like automobile insurance--having health insurance and being required to have health insurance, said Newt Gingrich, then House minority whip, in 1993.

HillaryCare mandate ok; ObamaCare mandate unconstitutional

GINGRICH: In 1993, in fighting HillaryCare, virtually every conservative saw the mandate as a less-dangerous future than what Hillary was trying to do. After HillaryCare disappeared it became more and more obvious that mandates have all sorts of problems built into them. People gradually tried to find other techniques. I frankly was floundering, trying to find a way to make sure that people who could afford it were paying their hospital bills while still leaving an out so libertarians to not buy insurance. And that's what we're wrestling with. It's now clear that the mandate, I think, is clearly unconstitutional. But, it started as a conservative effort to stop HillaryCare in the 1990s.

No mandatory premium support model; give people choices

We have to come up with solutions that are actually BETTER than what the government would force on you. Look at WalMart, people shop there because they think they will get a good deal.

We need to defeat so many entrenched elements of the Left that we have to convince Americans that we represent a better future than the Left does.

We have to get to a better health system before we get to an affordable health system.

Medicare pays crooks; contract it out to private companies

GINGRICH: I wrote a book in 2002 called Saving Lives and Saving Money, and I outlined what to do. Washington will do three stupid things instead of one smart thing. I just put on the table trillions of dollars that would be saved by not paying crooks. Why is it so hard to not penalize good people before you stop paying crooks? You can take existing IBM technology and use it to stop paying crooks. Why is it so hard to say you can turn this around and pass a bill to contract out to American Express, VISA, and IBM to handle Medicare payments and in 60 days you would save a TRILLION DOLLARS.

Block grant Medicaid; create individual incentives & bonuses

GINGRICH: Go to Newt.org for the proposed 21st Century Contract with America. The first step is to repeal Obamacare. [Then] block grant Medicaid. And block grant all remaining welfare programs. Give the states the power to deal with the poor using innovation and money savings. I do not believe you solve problems under the Left's policy of people being helpless. We need to rethink Medicaid much the way we rethought welfare reform. Governor Bush in Florida had a program where people who took care of themselves and didn't go to the emergency room got a Christmas bonus. To the shock of academics, poor people were aware of money and strived to get that bonus by not abusing the emergency rooms. If you had the ability to triage and send people to minute clinics, then the hospital wouldn't charge emergency room rates. We have to start distinguishing between the taxpayer who is concerned with charitable care and taxpayers who are suckers and are being exploited.

Rampant Medicaid/Medicare fraud: stop paying the crooks

Santorum: I am the only candidate that wrote & helped pass a bill (welfare) that actually ended a federal entitlement with Democratic votes. Leadership!

Gingrich: Block grant Medicaid and send it back to the states as Rep. Paul Ryan suggested.

Santorum: I was the first candidate to embrace the Ryan plan without exception. Send Medicaid, Food Stamps, and other means-tested entitlements to the states.

Cain: I would focus on major entitlement reform. This would focus on programs similar to Social Security.

Gingrich: Also, fraud in Medicaid and Medicare are rampant. We should stop paying the crooks.

Santorum: And of course repeal Obamacare before it does even more damage to our economy and our freedom

If you mandate healthcare, you mandate everything in life

A: Yes, it should be. If you explore the mandate, it ultimately ends up with unconstitutional powers. It allows the government to define virtually everything. And if you can do it for health care, you can do it for everything in your life, and, therefore, we should not have a mandate.

But I want to answer at a different level. This campaign cannot be only about the presidency. We need to pick up at least 12 seats in the Senate and 30 or 40 more seats in the House, because if you are serious about repealing Obamacare, you have to be serious about building a big enough majority in the legislative branch that you could actually in the first 90 days pass the legislation. So I just think it's very important to understand, it's not about what one person in America does. It's about what the American people do. And that requires a senatorial majority, as well as a presidency.

House GOP Medicare plan was right-wing social engineering

GINGRICH: [A reporter asked] a narrow question: Should Republicans impose an unpopular bill on the American people? Now, I actually wrote a newsletter supporting the Ryan budget. And those words were taken totally out of context. If you're dealing with something as big as Medicare and you can't have a conversation with the country where the country thinks what you're doing is the right thing, you better slow down. Remember, we all got mad at Obama because he ran over us. Well, th Republicans ought to follow the same ground rule. If you can't convince the American people it's a good idea, maybe it's not a good idea. There are certain things I would do different than Paul Ryan on Medicare. I agree strongly with him on Medicaid.

Tort Reform: Impose "loser pays" rules; cap punitive damages

More recently, Gingrich has supported tort reform in the context of health care reform and cost-containment. In 2009, Gingrich said, "The plain and simple truth is that leaving the tort system 'as is' ignores more than $200 billion in potential savings annually in health care." Specifically, Gingrich cited statistics pertaining to the expensive and wasteful practice of "defensive medicine," in which doctors perform unnecessary tests solely to protect themselves from predatory lawsuits. In 2002, Gingrich called for a cap on "pain and suffering" awards in medical malpractice suits.

Repeal ObamaCare; sign tort reform instead

President Obama could be bipartisan. There are seven steps to the center for Obama.
1. Sign the repeal of ObamaCare. 58% of the American people, in the most recent poll, favor repeal of ObamaCare.
2. Sign Tort reform for doctors. He said the other night he would like to do it, let's let him do it.
3. Sign the permanent repeal of the death tax.
4. Sign a new Hyde Amendment, so no tax payer money funds abortion in the United States.
5. Sign a new Conservative Budget Act, to control spending and move to a balanced budget.
6. Sign a law to decisively control the border now.
7. Sign a tenth amendment implementation act returning power from Washington to the states and to the people thereof. And that act should include--to prove how real it is-- block-granting Medicaid so that states can control the cost and improve the quality without interference from Washington bureaucrats.

$151B wasted annually to avoid malpractice lawsuits

If we want Americans to emphasize cooperation and problem solving over acrimonious, costly conflicts, we must have litigation reform.

Most Americans agree there are too many lawyers filing too many lawsuits, especially in medicine.

An estimated $151-210 billion is wasted annually in defensive medicine, as doctors follow unnecessary procedures and conduct needless tests and services solely to avoid malpractice lawsuits.

In preparing for health reform in 2009, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that litigation reform in medical malpractice would save the federal government $53 billion over ten years.

For most doctors and businesses, litigation reform is important but it's not dire. But for the trial lawyers--the reactionary defenders of the old order--this is a life-or-death issue.

Focus on Availability, Affordability, and Appropriateness

• Will healthcare be AVAILABLE for me and my family when we need it?
• Will we be able to AFFORD what we need?
• Will what is offered be APPROPRIATE for us?

1. Availability: A 21st century healthcare system must use creative initiatives like medical education debt forgiveness.
2. Affordability: There is a waste and inefficiency across the entire spectrum of discovery, development and delivery of healthcare.
3. Delivery: The system of product delivery today is plagued by fraud and abuse, contributing to a dramatic waste of money, time, talent, and expertise.
4. Appropriateness: Radically transform healthcare so that treatment is no longer based on population medicine, but on personalized medicine. This can begin with modernizing the FDA.

$600B to $850B in healthcare waste every year

• Unnecessary care (40 percent)
• Fraud (19 percent)
• Administrative inefficiency (17 percent)
• Healthcare provider errors (12percent)
• Preventable conditions (6 percent)
• Lack of care coordination (6 percent)

21st-century personalized intelligent health system

1. Centered on the Individual
   • The Right to Know: current system is absurdly secretive
   • Personal Responsibility: individuals expected to inform themselves
   • Personalized Health and Health Care: via genetic tests
2. Information Technology and Quality
   • Paper Kills: 98,000 Americans die as a result of medical errors
   • E-Prescribing: avoid 150 pharmacist calls
3. Health, Not Health Care
   • Drivers and Strategies: Science; Information technology; Individual empowerment

Focus on health as a moral issue

Medicare opt-in to private health savings accounts

Focus 21st Century Intelligent Health System on individuals

We need to transform our health care system based on an entirely new set of principles. Our new 21st Century Intelligent Health System will be built around three big changes:

1. Move knowledge from the doctor’s office and scientific laboratory to the individual as rapidly as possible;
2. Help the health care system adopt top quality information technology systems to increase productivity, accuracy, and cut costs; and
3. Center the process of health on the informed individual so he or she can have the knowledge, desire, responsibility, and opportunity to live the longest life, with the best health, at the lowest cost.

Market competition yields more health choice at lower prices

The lesson of nearly four hundred years of entrepreneurial, technology and science-based free market capitalism is very clear. You should expect to get more choices of higher quality at falling prices. This is the opposite of the rationing mentality of some left-wing politicians and the scarcity mentality of too many bureaucrats.

We need to bring these concepts into health and health care. We must insist that doctors, hospitals, medical technologies, and drugs have both quality and cost information available on-line so people can make informed decisions.

Health Savings Accounts: tax-free savings until used

The Health Savings Account is personal property so it follows you from job to job during your career. 4 out of every 5 people do not have a major health problem before 65. As a result they could end up with a significant savings account. It's been estimated that an 18 or 19 year old who has an HSA and maintains his health could end up with $250K in his account when he reaches age 65.

1994: Declined gov't insurance but gov't paid 75% anyway

Save dollars and save lives--so transform urgently

Transforming health and healthcare is urgent, because it is about saving lives and saving money. Never before have we been at this historic moment in time where transforming a system as big as health and healthcare can and will mean so much to so many. The urgency comes from the ability to save thousands of lives every year if only we would transform the system to take advantage of the technology available to us right now.

Tranformation of healthcare is doable if we each do our share of the lifting. As an individual, become more responsible for your own health. As a user of healthcare, become proactive with your healthcare providers. As a citizen, let your voice be heard.

System broken due to “perfect storm” of converging problems

America’s healthcare system is nearing the edge of its own perfect storm. The system is broken.

Tax credits for developing technology for disabilities

A basic principle for a 21st Century System of Health and Healthcare for people with disabilities is to keep these individuals independent for as long as possible.

We should be exploring tax credits and other financial incentives to encourage companies to develop the right technologies for people with disabilities.

Now, people who can benefit from technologies are often prevented from acquiring them because they are expensive and insurance companies are reluctant to pay for them.

Re-focus Medicare on preventive health instead of sickness

Medicare must be strengthened to include a focus on outcomes-based healthcare. Immediately drugs should be reimbursed in order to de-incentivize reactive acute care. However, the current budgetary structure is clearly biased in favor of reactive care.

It should not matter if a patient is treated in a hospital, in a doctor’s office or in their home. The flow of resources should follow the patient and not be driven by a series of bureaucratic structures.

Market dynamics can save healthcare, not government control

Examples like the now-defunct Soviet Union have confirmed that centralized government control employing coercion through regulation or edict is not a good solution. America is the best current example of a democracy in which people loan their power to the government but remain the ultimate decision makers.

This attempt at centralized governmental control has spawned many of the raging storms we have today-- dissatisfied patients, restricted access, huge numbers of uninsured, unacceptable medical mistakes, a lack of information technology, and upwardly spiraling costs. These issues are exacerbated by our growing reliance on the government to pay for services

Focus on prevention; would save $14B with diabetes

Ongoing battle against liberals nationalizing healthcare

But liberals never take no for an answer. By 1996 they were back with the Kennedy-Kassebaum plan. We were able to dilute it and to establish medical savings accounts; nevertheless, they had taken some steps toward more government-run health care. In 1997 the President had the idea of providing care for the poorest children. We were able to stop the Washington-based bureaucracy proposed and to ensure that any program would be run at the state level. The point is that the liberals one way and another managed to stay focused on expanding government involvement in health care.

1995: Let Medicare wither on the vine

So in early November we featured Gingrich's quote [in a TV ad]. We ran the ad for three weeks in about 40 percent of the country during the shutdown. The average voter in these swing states saw three showings of it every week, nine all told.

Decentralizing power will reduce health costs

1. A restricting of the insurance system to increase flexibility and create new incentives for lower cost care.
2. A shift in responsibility and information away from professional guilds and public bureaucracies and toward the individual consumer-citizen.
3. An entrepreneurial and scientific revolution that will lower health costs for more and more patients.

Too much reform puts 1/7 of US economy at risk

Gingrich met with Hillary in 1984 We had a good discussion," said the Speaker-to-be. "I begged her not to go for the whole reform package that puts at risk 1/7 of the American economy. My advice was to go for four small reforms to see what worked. Try ensuring portability of health insurance when people change jobs. See that preexisting conditions are covered. Take care of malpractice and tort reform. Create medical savings accounts. That sort of thing. If she tried to do it all, she would fail."

And fail she did, in dramatic fashion a few months later, just before the historic elections to come.

$500 tax credit for family eldercare

Defund, repeal, & replace federal care with free market.

The Contract from America, clause 7. Defund, Repeal, & Replace Government-run Health Care:

Defund, repeal and replace the recently passed government-run health care with a system that actually makes health care and insurance more affordable by enabling