2018 MO Senate race: on Health Care

Josh Hawley: ObamaCare has raised premiums by 145%

JOSH HAWLEY: On healthcare, Missourians are paying outrageous healthcare costs, up 145% price increases in the state. They want to see that change. Claire McCaskill is responsible.

Q: If you get elected, are you going to vote to repeal and replace ObamaCare?

JOSH HAWLEY: Yes, I would. I think it's absolutely vital that we get rid of the failures of ObamaCare, we bring down costs, we protect people with pre-existing conditions in the law with a mandate, Chuck, that ensures that we do it, but that we multiply options for families. You know, I have had family after family, in this state, come up to me and say, "Look, we can't afford our health insurance. We're having to get a second job, send a spouse back to work." It shouldn't have to be that way.

Josh Hawley: Cover pre-existing conditions by mandate, without ObamaCare

JOSH HAWLEY: There are a number of ways to do it, to protect folks with pre-existing conditions. Congress should mandate it. My position is insurance companies should be required, by law, to protect folks with pre-existing conditions.

Q: Do you think that's constitutional?

HAWLEY: I do, absolutely. What's not constitutional is the requirement that people buy health insurance they don't want. But it's absolutely constitutional to say that insurers have to cover people with pre-existing conditions. Congress should mandate it. People like my own little boy, who has a pre-existing condition, should be covered under the law, but apart from ObamaCare. We don't have to have ObamaCare to do it. I think we need to clear away the failure of ObamaCare and put patients back in charge of their healthcare.

Claire McCaskill: Protect coverage of pre-existing conditions

Josh Hawley (R): Repeal & replace ACA, which "was never constitutional." Part of lawsuit to end required coverage of pre-existing conditions.

Claire McCaskill (D): Supports "improving" ACA. Offered Senate resolution to protect coverage of pre-existing conditions.

Josh Hawley: ObamaCare was never constitutional

Josh Hawley (R): Repeal & replace ACA, which "was never constitutional." Part of lawsuit to end required coverage of pre-existing conditions.

Claire McCaskill (D): Supports "improving" ACA. Offered Senate resolution to protect coverage of pre-existing conditions.

Josh Hawley: Get rid of ObamaCare, but cover pre-existing conditions

But Hawley is one of the 20 state officials who has signed onto a new lawsuit seeking to eliminate the Affordable Care Act's guarantee of coverage, which they argue is unconstitutional. Hawley is also a longtime supporter of Congress repealing the law outright. "It's simple: ObamaCare must go," he told supporters last year.

Hawley would have Missourians believe there is nothing contradictory in his rhetoric and action--he simply wants to get rid of "ObamaCare," not the law's promise of insurance for anybody regardless of pre-existing conditions.

In reality, Hawley and other Republicans have no plan for replacing the law with something that would provide the same kind of access. The GOP, including Hawley, is now talking up a Senate bill experts have said wouldn't solve the problem.

Tony Monetti: Replace ObamaCare with free market

Austin Petersen: Marketplace will solve healthcare issues

Angelica Earl: Supports universal healthcare

Angelica Earl: Corporate taxes should pay for single payer

Eric Greitens: ObamaCare has been a disaster in Missouri

Greitens, who has been critical of the Affordable Care Act, said he has some qualms with the replacement plan: "What they're working on right now in the House is obviously a first draft. I have some concerns with it," said Greitens, a Republican.

Some Republicans have expressed fear that the plan under consideration is a long way from the free-market insurance competition they'd hoped for. But citing increasing premiums and limited choices of insurers, Greitens maintained that ObamaCare has been a disaster in Missouri.

"We've been talking with conservatives about what we need to do to build a patient-centered approach that offers flexibility to families so that they have options, and also flexibility to the states so we can build a better system here in the state of Missouri," he went on.

Josh Hawley: Ran for Attorney-General on anti-ObamaCare platform

As a private attorney, he worked with more than a dozen lawyers on a case in which Hobby Lobby and other businesses challenged a federal requirement to provide insurance coverage for contraceptives for employees.

His campaign web site notes that, "ObamaCare is hurting Missouri families--limiting their healthcare and driving up their bills. And it's hurting jobs. If we want better healthcare and better jobs in our state, it's simple: ObamaCare must go," it adds.

With the Republican-led Congress and Trump now pushing to repeal ObamaCare, other statewide officials in Missouri have weighed in on the effects of the replacement plan, including Republican Gov. Eric Greitens.