Joe BIDEN: Harris' plan costs $3 trillion [annually]. Secondly, it will require middle-class taxes to go up, not down. Thirdly, it will eliminate employer-based insurance.
DE BLASIO: I don't know what the vice president and the senator are talking about. The folks I talk to say that their health insurance isn't working for them. There's tens of millions of Americans who don't even have health insurance, tens of millions more who have health insurance they can barely make work because of the co-pays, the deductibles, the premiums, the out-of-pocket expenses. There's this mythology that somehow all of these folks are in love with their insurance in America. What I hear is anger at private insurance companies that skim all the profits off the top and make it impossible for everyday people to get coverage like mental care, dental care, the things that would be full coverage for all Americans.
Sen. Michael Bennet: We need to be honest about what's in this plan. It bans employer based insurance.
De Blasio: If Democrats say we're done with private insurance, has only hurt the American people in so many ways, we're going to give them something that works for their family's full coverage that they can depend on. This should be the party that stands for universal health care and says we're not going to accept anything less. So many people don't have the health care they need. Tens of millions of people, including middle class people. Give them a chance to make that decision through an election.
HARRIS: I have been listening to American families, who said four years is just not enough to transition into this new plan, so I devised a plan where it's going to be 10 years of a transition. I listened to American families who said I want an option that will be under your Medicare system that allows a private plan.
BIDEN: Any time someone tells you you're going to get something good in 10 years, you should wonder why it takes 10 years. And the plan in 10 years will cost $3 trillion. You will lose your employer-based insurance. This is the single most important issue facing the public. And to be very straightforward, you can't beat President Trump with double-talk on this plan.
NYC Mayor Bill DE BLASIO: I don't know what the vice president is talking about. There's this mythology that folks are in love with their insurance in America. The folks I talk to say that their health insurance isn't working for them.
BIDEN: ObamaCare is working. The way to get to [ten million uninsured Americans] immediately is to build on ObamaCare. Take back all the things that Trump took away, provide a public option, meaning every single person in America would be able to buy into that option if they didn't like their employer plan, or if they're on Medicaid, they'd automatically be in the plan. It would take place immediately. It would move quickly. And it would insure the vast, vast, vast majority of Americans. In the meantime, what happens? Did anybody tell you how much their plans cost? My plan costs $750 billion. [Medicare-for-All costs] $30 trillion.
Biden: My plan makes a limit of co-pay to be $1,000, because we further support the ability to buy into ObamaCare. No one has to keep their private insurance, but if they like their insurance, they should be able to keep it. Nothing is demanded in my plan that there be private insurance. If the 160 million who have it like their employer insurance, they should have a right to have it. If they don't, they can buy into the Biden plan.
Biden: My plan will cover everyone. Number two, the fact is that my plan also calls for controlling drug prices. Biopharma is now where things are going to go. It's no longer chemicals. It's about all these breakthroughs that we have with the immune system. What we have to do is have a form that says, as you develop a drug, you got to come to us and decide what you can sell it for. We will set the price. And secondly, you cannot raise that price beyond the cost of inflation from this point on.
Biden: I have the only plan that limits the ability of insurance companies to charge unreasonable prices, flat out, number one. Number two, we should put some of these insurance executives who totally oppose my plan in jail for the $9 billion opioids they sell out there.
CASTRO: Well, I know that this is something very personal for all Americans. You know I grew up with a grandmother that had diabetes and I watched as her condition got worse and worse. That whole time she had Medicare. I want to strengthen Medicare for the people who are on it and then expand it to anybody who wants it. I also believe thought that if somebody has a private health insurance plan that is strong that they want to hold on to that they should be able to do that. What I don't believe is that the profit motive of big pharma or big insurance companies should ever determine, in our great nation, whether somebody gets healthcare or not.
HARRIS: I have been spending time in this campaign listening to American families, listening to experts, listening to health care providers, and what I came away with is a very clear understanding that I needed to create a plan that was responsive to the needs of the American people, understanding that insurance companies have been jacking up the prices for far too long. I listened to the American families who said four years is just not enough to transition into this new plan, so I devised a plan where it's going to be 10 years of a transition. I listened to American families who said I want an option that will be under your Medicare system that allows a private plan.
BIDEN: The plan costs $3 trillion [annually]. Ten years from now, after two terms of the senator being president, after her time. Secondly, it will require middle-class taxes to go up, not down. Thirdly, it will eliminate employer-based insurance. And fourthly, what happens in the meantime?
HARRIS: The cost of doing nothing is far too expensive. We are now paying $3 trillion a year for health care in America. Over the next 10 years, it's probably going to be $6 trillion. We must act. My plan is about immediately allowing people to sign up and get into coverage.
HARRIS: My plan does not offer anything that is illegal. What it does is it separates the employer from healthcare, meaning that the kind of healthcare you get will not be a function of where you work. I have me met so many Americans who stick to a job that they do not like, where they are not prospering simply because they need the healthcare that that employer provides. It's time that we separate employers from the kind of healthcare people get and under my plan, we do that as it relates to the insurance and the pharmaceutical companies, who will not be taken to task by Senator Bennet's plan. We will do that.
BENNET: We need to be honest about what's in this plan. It bans employer based insurance and taxes the middle class to the tune of $30 trillion
Harris: In terms of the point that Senator Gillibrand is raising, I couldn't agree more. Senator Biden, your plan will keep and allow insurance companies to remain with status quo, doing business as usual, and that's going to be about jacking up co-pays, jacking up deductibles.
Kamala Harris: Let's talk about math. Let's talk about the fact that pharmaceutical and insurance companies last year profited $72 billion on the backs of American families. Under your plan, you do nothing to hold the insurance companies to task for what they have been doing to American families. Today diabetes patients, one in four cannot afford insulin. For those people who have overdosed from an opioid, there is a syringe that costs $4,000 that will save their life. It is immoral. It is untenable.
BENNET: I agree that it makes it much more likely. I believe we should finish the job we started with the Affordable Care Act with a public option that gives everybody the chance to pick whether they want private insurance or public insurance. [My plan] requires the drug companies to be negotiated with by Medicare and it provides competition. That is totally different from the plan that Senator Warren and Senator Sanders and Senator Harris have proposed, which would make illegal employer based health insurance in this country and massively raise taxes on the middle class to the tune of $30 trillion. We don't need to do that. It doesn't make sense for us to take away insurance from half the people and put huge taxes on almost everybody. When we pass a public option, [we] trust the American people to make the right decision, and have universal healthcare in this country in two years.
Bennet: We need to be honest about what's in this plan. It bans employer based insurance and taxes the middle class to the tune of $30 trillion. Do you know how much that is? That is 70 percent of what the government will collect in taxes over the next 10 years.
NYC Mayor Bill DeBlasio: What he's saying is absolutely inaccurate about taxes. Americans right now are paying so much money for their health care, ask people about the reality of premiums, deductibles, co-pays, out-of-pocket expenses.
Bennet: Bernie Sanders says it will cost $32 trillion and that we're going to have to raise those taxes to pay for it. You can't hide from the truth.
DELANEY: We [should not] go down the road that Senator Sanders wants to take us, which is with bad policies like Medicare for all.
Q [to Sanders]: He previously has called Medicare-for-All "political suicide that will just get President Trump re-elected." What do you say to Congressman Delaney about whether it's "bad policy"?
SANDERS: You're wrong. Right now, we have a dysfunctional health care system: 87 million uninsured or underinsured; 500,000 Americans every year going bankrupt because of medical bills.
DELANEY: We can create a universal health care system [without] telling half the country that their health insurance is illegal.
SANDERS: Tens of millions of people lose their health insurance every single year when they change jobs. If you want stability in the health care system, if you want a system which gives you freedom of choice, a system which will not bankrupt you, the answer is to get rid of the profiteering of the drug companies.
SANDERS: It will be better because Medicare-for-all is comprehensive -- it covers all healthcare needs. For senior citizens it will finally include dental care, hearing aids and eyeglasses.
Rep. Tim RYAN: But you don't know that, Bernie.
SANDERS: I do know it; I wrote the damn bill. And many of our union brothers and sisters are now paying high deductibles and copayments when we do Medicare for all, instead of having the company putting money in to healthcare, they can get decent wage increases, which they're not getting today.
RYAN: Senator Sanders does not know all of the union contracts--the only thing they have is possibly really good healthcare. And the Democratic message is going to be, "we're going to take it and we're going to do better."
Two days ago, I had a remarkable experience which should tell you everything you need to know about what's going on in America. I took 15 people with diabetes from Detroit a few miles into Canada, and we bought insulin for one-tenth the price being charged by the crooks who run the pharmaceutical industry in America today.
But it's not just the price-fixing and the corruption and the greed of the pharmaceutical industry. It's what's going on in the fossil fuel industry. It's what's going on in Wall Street. We need a mass political movement. Stand up and take on the greed and corruption of the ruling class. Let's create a government and an economy that works for all of us, not just the 1%.
SANDERS: Please don't tell me that in a four year period we cannot go from 65 down to 55, to 45, to 35 -- this is not radical. This is what virtually every other country on Earth runs. We are the odd dog out.
Rep. John DELANEY: We don't have to go around and be the party of subtraction, and telling half the country, who has private health insurance, that their health insurance is illegal. It'll underfund the industry, many hospitals will close, and it's bad policy.
SANDERS: The fact is, tens of millions of people lose their health insurance every single year when they change jobs or their employer changes that insurance. If you want stability in the health care system, if you want a system which gives you freedom of choice with regard to a doctor or a hospital, which is a system which will not bankrupt you, the answer is to get rid of the profiteering of the drug companies and the insurance companies, move to Medicare for all.
SANDERS: I happen to believe that when I talk about healthcare as a human right that applies to all people in this country, and under a Medicare for All single payer system, we could afford to do that.
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.
DELANEY: Folks, we have a choice. We can go down the road that Senator Sanders and Senator Warren want to take us, which is with bad policies like Medicare-for-all. But we don't have to go around and be the party of subtraction, and telling half the country, who has private health insurance, that their health insurance is illegal.
WARREN: Let's be clear about this. We are the Democrats. We are not about trying to take away health care from anyone. That's what the Republicans are trying to do. And we should stop using Republican talking points in order to talk with each other about how to best provide that health care. The basic profit model of an insurance company is taking as much money as you ca
WARREN: We have to think in terms of the big frame. Washington works great for the wealthy, who can hire armies of lobbyists. And it keeps working great for the insurance companies. What it's going to take is real courage to fight back against them. These insurance companies do not have a God-given right to make $23 billion in profits and suck it out of our health care system.
Rep. John DELANEY: We need to have solutions that are workable. Can you imagine if we tried to start Social Security now but said "private pensions are illegal?" That's the equivalent of what Senator Warren is proposing with health care.
WARREN: He talks about solutions that are workable. We have tried the solution of private insurance companies. They've sucked billions of dollars out of our health care system. They've made everybody fill out dozens of forms. Why? Not because they're trying to track your health care. They just want one more excuse to say no.
WARREN: Giant corporations and billionaires are going to pay more. Middle-class families are going to pay less out of pocket for their health care. The basic profit model of an insurance company is taking as much money as you can in premiums and pay out as little as possible in health care coverage. That is not working for Americans across this country
Q: Would you raise taxes on the middle class to pay for Medicare for All, offset, obviously, by the elimination of insurance premiums, yes or no?
WARREN: Costs will go up for billionaires and go up for corporations. For middle-class families, costs -- total costs -- will go down.
Gov. John HICKENLOOPER: It comes down to that question of Americans being used to being able to make choices. Proposing a public option that allows some form of Medicare that maybe is a combination of Medicare Advantage and Medicare, but if enough people choose it, it expands, the quality improves, the cost comes down, eventually, in 15 years, you could get there, but it would be an evolution, not a revolution.
WARREN: We have tried this experiment with the insurance companies. What they've done is sucked billions of dollars out of our health care system. They force people to fight to get the health care coverage that their doctors and nurses say that they need. Why does every doctor, every hospital have to fill out so many complicated forms? It's because it gives insurance companies a chance to say no and to push that cost back on the patients.
WARREN: He talks about solutions that are workable. We have tried the solution of Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance. And what have the private insurance companies done? They've sucked billions of dollars out of our health care system. They've made everybody fill out dozens and dozens of forms. Why? Not because they're trying to track your health care. They just want one more excuse to say no. Insurance companies do not have a God-given right to suck money out of our health care system.
DELANEY: The bill that Senator Sanders drafted, by definition will lower quality in healthcare, because it says specifically that the rates will be the same as current Medicare rates. And the data is clear, Medicare does not cover the cost of healthcare, it covers 80% of the costs of healthcare in this country. And private insurance covers 120%, so if you start underpaying all the healthcare providers, you're going to create a two tier market where wealthy people buy their healthcare with cash, and the union people will have that healthcare plan taken away; they will be forced into an underfunded system.
SANDERS: Hospitals will save substantial sums of money because they're not going to be spending a fortune doing billing and other bureaucratic things.
DELANEY: I've done the math, it doesn't add up.
Rep. Delaney: We can create a universal health care system to give everyone basic health care for free, and I have a proposal to do it. But we don't have to go around and be the party of subtraction, and telling half the country, who has private health insurance, that their health insurance is illegal. It'll underfund the industry, many hospitals will close, and it's bad policy.
SANDERS: The fact is, tens of millions of people lose their health insurance every single year when they change jobs or their employer changes that insurance. If you want stability in the health care system, if you want a system which gives you freedom of choice with regard to a doctor or a hospital, the answer is to get rid of the profiteering of the drug companies and the insurance companies, move to Medicare-for-all.
DELANEY: I've done the math, it doesn't add up.
SANDERS: Maybe you did that and made money off of healthcare, but our job is to run a nonprofit healthcare system. [America will save] $500 billion a year by ending all of the incredible complexities of health insurance companies.
DELANEY: His math is wrong. It's been well-documented that if all the bills were paid at Medicare rate, which I think it's in section 1,200 of their bill, then many hospitals in this country would close. Why do we have to be so extreme? Why can't we just give everyone health care as a right, and allow them to have choice? I'm starting to think this is not about health care. This is an anti-private-sector strategy.
HICKENLOOPER: It comes down to that question of Americans being used to being able to make choices. Proposing a public option that allows some form of Medicare that maybe is a combination of Medicare Advantage and Medicare, but if enough people choose it, it expands, the quality improves, the cost comes down, eventually, in 15 years, you could get there, but it would be an evolution, not a revolution.
BUTTIGIEG: I think you can buy into it. That's the idea of Medicare for All Who Want It. Look, this is a distinction without a difference, whether you're paying the same money in the form of taxes or premiums. In this country, if you don't have health coverage, you're paying too much for care, and if you do have health coverage, you're paying too much for care.
BULLOCK: Watching that last debate, folks seemed more concerned about outdoing each other with wish-list economics, than making sure Americans know we will help their lives. I won 3 elections in a red state--not by compromising our values, but by getting stuff done. That teacher working a second job, just to afford her insulin. They can't wait for a revolution.
Q [to Warren]: You support Medicare-for-All. Does that include raising taxes on middle-class Americans?
WARREN: Giant corporations and billionaires are going to pay more. Middle-class families are going to pay less out of pocket for their health care.
Q [to Bullock]: You do not support Medicare-for-All?
BULLOCK: I'm not going to support any plan that rips away quality health care from individuals. This is an example of wish-list economics. It used to be just Republicans who wanted to repeal and replace. Now many Democrats do, as well. We can get there with a public option, and negotiating drug prices.
Rep. Beto O`ROURKE: 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?
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. We pay more for prescription drugs than any place in the world. Negotiate prescription drug prices. End surprise medical billing. That's the way that we can get there without disrupting the lives of 160 million people that like their employer-sponsored health insurance.
BULLOCK: No, health care is so personal to all of us. I'm not going to support any plan that rips away quality health care from individuals. This is an example of wish list economics. It used to be just Republicans who wanted to repeal and replace. Now many Democrats do, as well. We can get there with a public option, negotiating drug prices...
Sen. Bernie SANDERS: It will be better because Medicare-for-all is comprehensive -- it covers all healthcare needs.
RYAN: But you don't know that, Bernie.
SANDERS: I do know it; I wrote the damn bill.
RYAN: Senator Sanders does not know all of the union contracts in the United States. These union members are losing their jobs, their wages have been stagnant, the world is crumbling around them -- the only thing they have is possibly really good healthcare. And the Democratic message is going to be, we're going to go in and the only thing you have left we're going to take it and we're going to do better. I do not think that's a recipe for success for us, it's bad policy and it's certainly bad politics.
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| 2020 Presidential contenders on Health Care: | |||
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Republicans:
Gov.Larry Hogan (R-MD) V.P.Mike Pence(R-IN) Gov.Mark Sanford (R-SC) Pres.Donald Trump(NY) Rep.Joe Walsh (R-IL) Gov.Bill Weld(MA & NY) |
Democrats:
Sen.Michael Bennet (D-CO) V.P.Joe Biden (D-DE) Gov.Steve Bullock (D-MT) Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D-IN) Sen.Cory Booker (D-NJ) Secy.Julian Castro (D-TX) Mayor Bill de Blasio (D-NYC) Rep.John Delaney (D-MD) Rep.Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) Sen.Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) Sen.Mike Gravel (D-AK) Sen.Kamala Harris (D-CA) Sen.Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) Mayor Wayne Messam (D-FL) Rep.Seth Moulton (D-MA) Rep.Beto O`Rourke (D-TX) Rep.Tim Ryan (D-CA) Sen.Bernie Sanders (I-VT) Adm.Joe Sestak (D-PA) CEO Tom Steyer (D-CA) Sen.Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) Marianne Williamson (D-CA) CEO Andrew Yang (D-NY) 2020 Third Party Candidates: Rep.Justin Amash (L-MI) Howie Hawkins (G-NY) V.P.Mike Pence (R-IN) V.C.Arvin Vohra (L-MD) | ||
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