Beto O`Rourke on Health Care Democratic candidate for President; Texas Senator nominee

Distribute PrEP to everyone, at reduced cost

People can choose Medicare or not

Public option vs. Medicare for all a false choice

O`ROURKE: The answer is no. The middle class will not pay more in taxes in order to ensure that every American is guaranteed world-class health care. I think we're being offered a false choice, some who want to improve the Affordable Care Act at the margins, others who want a Medicare for All program that will force people off of private insurance, I have a better path. Medicare for America. Everyone who is uninsured is enrolled in Medicare tomorrow.

Q: Who's offering a false choice?

Beto O`ROURKE: Governor Bullock, who's said that we will improve the Affordable Care Act at the margins with a public option.

BULLOCK: Congressman, not at all. It took us decades and false starts to get the Affordable Care Act. Let's actually build on it. A public option, allowing anyone to buy in.

O`ROURKE: Every estimate that I've seen of expanding ACA even through a public option still leaves millions of people uninsured.

Biggest provider of mental healthcare in Texas are the jails

O'ROURKE: My goal is to ensure that every American is well enough to live to their full potential because they have health care. Getting to guaranteed, high-quality, universal health care as quickly and surely as possible has to be our goal. The ability to afford your prescriptions and go to a primary care provider; the ability to see a mental health care provider. In Texas, the single largest provider of mental health care services is the county jail system today. And health care also has to mean that every woman can make her own decisions about her own body and has access to the care that makes that possible. Our plan says that if you're uninsured, we enroll you in Medicare. If you're insufficiently insured, you can't afford your premiums, we enroll you in Medicare. But if your health care plan works for you and your family, you're able to keep it.

Expand health care benefits and support for veterans

Universal coverage, not Medicare-for-All

Supports Medicare for America as public option

Protect existing priorities, then expand Medicare & Medicaid

1. "The quickest way to get there in my mind is to ensure that we protect the safeguards that we already have."
2. "Expansion of Medicaid in those states that haven't done it."
3. "Allow people to buy in to Medicare who are not already covered by employer insurance."
4. "Ensure that there is an effective guarantee, so that even if you have insurance but are unable to afford the co-pay, that we guarantee you that you are going to get the care, or the medication that you need."

Medicare-X: government-run public option

• Health care: Create a government-run health insurance plan as one option for Americans.
• O'Rourke wants to create a health care "public option" he called "Medicare-X," which would offer all Americans a government-run insurance plan as a potential choice.
• It would leave employer-sponsored health insurance and other core elements of the current system intact.

Eventually make "health care for all" a reality

As if to rebut the inevitable accusations that he's a socialist, he proclaims himself a proud capitalist--among the few Democratic candidates, he points out, who have been small-business owners. "The ingenuity and innovation that you only find in America and in capitalist systems, the ability to harness the power of the market," he says, "it's hard to argue against pricing carbon and allowing the market to respond to that."

Open to different ways to get to universal health care

Improve ObamaCare, including public option

Ted Cruz (R): Absolutely repeal. Caused millions to lose their jobs, be forced into part-time work, lose health insurance & doctors & pay skyrocketing premiums.

Beto O'Rourke (D): Keep but improve, including public option. Repeal would reduce healthcare access & benefits, make health insurance less affordable.

ObamaCare addresses some problems, but needs El Paso focus

While these are important issues to address, the act fails to address problems that are specific to El Paso and the border. As your congressman I will work to make sure that future legislation that carries out the provisions of the PPACA will help, and not hurt, El Paso.

Opposes repealing ObamaCare.

Project Vote Smart infers candidate issue stances on key topics by summarizing public speeches and public statements. Congressional candidates are given the opportunity to respond in detail; about 11% did so in the 2012 races.

Project Vote Smart summarizes candidate stances on the following topic: 'Health Care: Do you support repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act?'

GOP can't beat ObamaCare, so they pretend it's a "disaster".

Heritage Action Summary: This vote would fully repeal ObamaCare.

Heritage Foundation recommendation to vote YES: (2/3/2015): ObamaCare creates $1.8 trillion in new health care spending and uses cuts to Medicare spending to help pay for some of it. Millions of Americans already have lost, and more likely will lose, their coverage because of ObamaCare. Many Americans have not been able to keep their doctors as insurers try to offset the added costs of ObamaCare by limiting the number of providers in their networks. In spite of the promise, the law increases the cost of health coverage.

Secretary of Labor Robert Reich recommendation to vote NO: (robertreich.org 11/22/2013): Having failed to defeat the Affordable Care Act, Republicans are now hell-bent on destroying the ObamaCare in Americans' minds, using the word "disaster" whenever mentioning the Act, and demand its repeal. Democrats [should] meet the Republican barrage with three larger truths:

1. The wreck of private insurance: Ours has been the only healthcare system in the world designed to avoid sick people. For-profit insurers have spent billions finding and marketing their policies to healthy people--while rejecting people with preexisting conditions, or at high risk.
2. We could not continue with this travesty of a healthcare system: ObamaCare is a modest solution. It still relies on private insurers--merely setting minimum standards and "exchanges" where customers can compare policies.
3. The moral imperative: Even a clunky compromise like the ACA between a national system of health insurance and a for-profit insurance market depends, fundamentally, on a social compact in which those who are healthier and richer are willing to help those who are sicker and poorer. Such a social compact defines a society.

Legislative outcome: Passed House 239-186-8; never came to a vote in the Senate.

Keep healthcare mandate, according to CC survey.

The Christian Coalition Voter Guide inferred whether candidates agree or disagree with the statement, 'Repealing the Nationalized Health Care System that Forces Citizens to Buy Insurance ' Christian Coalition's self-description: "Christian Voter Guide is a clearing-house for traditional, pro-family voter guides. We do not create voter guides, nor do we interview or endorse candidates."