CNN "State of the Union" interviews during 2018: on Health Care

Stacey Abrams: Medicaid expansion for reduced cost & preexisting conditions

ABRAMS: I don't think that he's wrong. I think that, as a national conversation, there certainly should be an ongoing review of what Medicare-for-All can do. But a single state cannot make that change. Georgia does not have the financial capacity to provide that type of coverage. That is a federal conversation. In Georgia, we have to do the fundamentals, including the expansion of Medicaid. That's how we provide access to health care. That's how we reduce costs. That's how we protect preexisting conditions. My focus is on how I can serve Georgia, and that means a focus on Medicaid expansion.

Stacey Abrams: Paying for uncompensated care brings money back

ABRAMS: Georgia spends about $1.75 billion per year on uncompensated care. That's health care costs. By expanding Medicaid, we can join states like Kentucky that cut that number in half. That's savings that will go directly into providing access. My plan is to put money back into the pockets of hardworking Georgians. And all of the plans I have proposed, which are detailed, specific, and have pay-fors, all of those programs can be done under our current budget in the state of Georgia. What's more important is that the economic benefit to our state is dramatic, thousands of more jobs, thousands of good-paying jobs, access to health care coverage, and improvement for our state overall.

Q: So, you're telling Georgia families that none of them are going to have to pay higher taxes with you as governor?

ABRAMS: I do not intend to raise taxes. That is not the necessity.

Bernie Sanders: Don't let Republicans do away with preexisting protection

SANDERS: You have a Republican leadership in the House and the Senate that tried, came within one vote of throwing 32 million people off of the health insurance they currently have. You have leadership there in the House and the Senate that wants to do away with the preexisting protections that people have in this country. You have a president and Republican leadership who supported a budget which would have cut Medicare by $500 billion.

Q: President Trump argues that Medicare-for-All could lead to worse coverage for many Americans who are happy with their private insurance plan. What do you tell them?

SANDERS: Right now, as a nation, we are spending twice as much per capita on health care as do the people of any other country, $28,000 a year for a family of four. That is unsustainable. 70% of the American people understand that Medicare is a good program, and it should be expanded to all people.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: Medicare-for-All saves money; an investment for our future

OCASIO-CORTEZ: We need to realize that Medicare-for-All would save the American people a very large amount of money. These systems are not just pie in the sky. Many of them are accomplished by every modern, civilized democracy in the Western world. The United Kingdom has a form of single-payer health care, Canada, France, Germany. What we need to realize is that these investments are good for our future. These are generational investments, not short-term Band-Aids, but they are really profound decisions about who we want to be and how we want to act, as the wealthiest nation in history.

Andrew Gillum: Medicare-for-All, paid $1B restoration of corporate tax cuts

Gillum said that he would "absolutely not raise taxes on everyday working Floridians" to institute the proposal. Pressed on whether wealthier Floridians would see a tax hike, he said corporations would front the plan.

"We will increase taxes for corporations in our state who, right now, just so you are aware, only 3% of companies in the state of Florida pay the corporate tax rate. And that 3% under the Donald Trump tax scam got a windfall of $6.3 billion overnight due to the tax reform that took place in Washington, DC," Gillum said.

"We're not asking for all of it," he continued. "We simply said we believe that we ought to bring a billion of that money back into the state's government because being a cheap-date state has not worked for the state of Florida."

Bernie Sanders: Negotiate Medicare prices stop outrageous pharma ripoffs

SANDERS: What you have is a president who promised the American people to provide health care to everybody, and then proceeded to support legislation to throw 32 million people off of health insurance. And most Americans think that health care should be a right of all people. We're moving in exactly the wrong direction. You have a president who campaigned, appropriately enough, on the outrageous ripoffs of the pharmaceutical industry, and he said he was going to take them on. And just the other day, he caved in, of course, and did not go forward in demanding that Medicare negotiate prices with the drug companies or that we allow our pharmacists and distributors to re-import low-cost medicine from abroad. So, I think what the American people perceive is, you have a president who says one thing and does another thing.

Corey Stewart: Full repeal of ObamaCare