June Democratic candidates debate in Miami FL: on Health Care
Bernie Sanders:
Canada has figured out single-payer, at half the cost of US
Q: You basically want to scrap the private health insurance system as we know it and replace it with a government-run plan. None of the states that have tried something like that--CA, VT, NY--have been successful. If politicians can't make it work in
those states, how would you implement it on a national level?SANDERS: Every other major country on Earth, including my neighbor 50 miles north of me, Canada, somehow has figured out a way to provide health care to every man, woman, and child, and in
most cases, they're spending 50% per capita of what we are spending.
Q: How do you implement it on a national level, given the fact that other states have not succeeded?
SANDERS: We'll do it the way real change has always taken place.
We will have Medicare-for-All when tens of millions of people are prepared to stand up and tell the insurance companies and the drug companies that their day is gone, that health care is a human right, not something to make huge profits off of.
Source: June Democratic Primary debate (second night in Miami)
Jun 27, 2019
Bernie Sanders:
Medicare is most popular health insurance so let's expand it
Q: Senator Bennet, you want to keep the system that we have in place with ObamaCare [instead of Bernie's single-payer system]. Why?Sen. Mike BENNET: Bernie has said over and over again that this [single-payer Medicare-for-All plan] will make
illegal all insurance except cosmetic--I guess that's for plastic surgery. Everything else is banned under the Medicare-for-all proposal.
Sen. Bernie SANDERS: You know, Mike, Medicare is the most popular health insurance program in the country.
BENNET: I agree.
SANDERS: People don't like their private insurance companies. They like their doctors and hospitals. Under our plan people go to any doctor they want, any hospital they want.
We will substantially lower the cost of health care in this country because we'll stop the greed of the insurance companies. On this issue we have to think about how this affects real people.
Source: June Democratic Primary debate (second night in Miami)
Jun 27, 2019
Eric Swalwell:
We need a healthcare guarantee: if you're sick, you get seen
Kamala HARRIS: A parent who has seen their child has a temperature that is out of control takes the child to the E.R., knowing that if they walk through those doors, even though they have insurance, they will be out a $5,000 deductible.Swalwell: I'm
one of those parents. I was just in the emergency room. And I'm telling you we fight health insurance companies every single week. We have to have a health care guarantee. If you are sick, you're seen. And in America, you never go broke because of it.
Source: June Democratic Primary debate (second night in Miami)
Jun 27, 2019
Joe Biden:
Build on ObamaCare, with Medicare buy-in
When my wife and daughter were killed in an automobile accident, my two boys were badly injured. I couldn't imagine what it would be like if I'd not had adequate health care. When my son came home from Iraq, he was diagnosed with terminal cancer and
given months to live. I can't fathom what would have happened if they said the last six months of your life, you're on your own. The quickest way to do it is build on ObamaCare and make sure everyone does have an option to a Medicare-like plan.
Source: June Democratic Primary debate (second night in Miami)
Jun 27, 2019
Joe Biden:
Cover undocumented immigrants to reduce overall cost of care
You cannot let people who are sick, no matter where they come from, no matter what their status, go uncovered. It's the humane thing to do. They've increased the lifespan of Social Security because they have a job, they're paying a
Social Security tax. They do the same thing in terms of reducing the overall cost of health care by being able to be treated and not wait until they are in extremis.
Source: June Democratic Primary debate (second night in Miami)
Jun 27, 2019
Kamala Harris:
$5000 deductible demonstrates flaws of for profit system
A parent who has seen their child has a temperature that is out of control, calls 911, what should I do? They say, take the child to the Emergency Room. They are sitting in the parking lot outside of the Emergency Room looking at those sliding glass
doors while they have the hand on the forehead of their child, knowing that if they walk through those doors, even though they have insurance, they will be out a $5,000 deductible. That's what insurance companies are doing in America today.
Source: June Democratic Primary debate (second night in Miami)
Jun 27, 2019
Kirsten Gillibrand:
Keep private insurance in transition; goal is single payer
We need to get to universal health care as a right and not a privilege. The quickest way is you create competition with the insurers. If they want to compete, they can certainly try, but they've never put people over their profits, and I doubt they
ever will. People will choose Medicare, then your step to single-payer is short. I would make it an earned benefit, just like Social Security, so that you buy in your whole life, it is always there for you, and it's permanent and it's universal.
Source: June Democratic Primary debate (second night in Miami)
Jun 27, 2019
Marianne Williamson:
We have a sickness care system; we need a healthcare system
Q: How would you lower the cost of prescription drugs?Senator BENNET: We need to get to universal health care, by finishing the work we started with ObamaCare and creating a public option.
WILLIAMSON: While I agree with Senator Bennet, it's really
nice if we've got all these plans, but we've got to get deeper than just these superficial fixes. We don't have a health care system in the United States. We have a sickness care system in the United States. We just wait until somebody gets sick, and
then we talk about who's going pay for the treatment and how they're going to be treated. What we need to talk about is why so many Americans have unnecessary chronic illnesses, so many more compared to other countries. And that gets
back into not just the health insurance and big pharma companies, it has to do with chemical policies, it has to do with environmental policies. It has to do with drug policies.
Source: June Democratic Primary debate (second night in Miami)
Jun 27, 2019
Michael Bennet:
Medicare for 35M; private insurance for the other 295M
Q: How do we get to universal coverage?Sen. Bernie SANDERS: Every other major country on Earth, including Canada, somehow has figured out a way to provide health care to every man, woman, and child.
Q: Senator Bennet, you want to keep the system
that we have in place with ObamaCare [instead of Bernie's single-payer system]. Is that enough to get us to universal coverage?
BENNET: I believe that will get us the quickest way there. There are millions of people in America that do not have health
insurance today because they make too much money to be on Medicaid [but] can't afford health insurance. When Senator Sanders says that Canada is single payer, there are 35 million people in Canada. There are 330 million people in the United States, the
number of people on a public option could easily be 35 million. And for them, it would be Medicare-for-all. But for others that want to keep it, they should be able to keep it. And I think that will be the fastest way to get where we need to go.
Source: June Democratic Primary debate (second night in Miami)
Jun 27, 2019
Pete Buttigieg:
How do we get to single payer? Need a glide path
I would call it Medicare for all who want it. You make it available on the exchanges, people can buy in. If people like us are right, that will be not only a more inclusive plan, but a more efficient plan, then it will be a very natural glide path to
the single-payer environment.But let's remember, even in countries that have socialized medicine there's still a private sector. It's just that for our primary care, we can't be relying on the tender mercies of the corporate system.
This one is very personal for me. I started out this year dealing with the terminal illness of my father. I make decisions for a living, and nothing could have prepared me for the kind of decisions our family faced. The thing we had going for us was
that we never had to make those decisions based on whether it was going to bankrupt our family, because of Medicare. And I want every family to have that same freedom to do what is medically right, not live in financial fear.
Source: June Democratic Primary debate (second night in Miami)
Jun 27, 2019
Pete Buttigieg:
Cover undocumented immigrants; then we're all healthier
Our country is healthier when everybody is healthier. Remember, we are talking about something people are given a chance to buy into. This is not about a handout. This is an insurance program. And we do ourselves no favors by having
11 million undocumented people in our country be unable to access health care. But, of course, the real problem is we shouldn't have 11 million undocumented people with no pathway to citizenship. It makes no sense.
Source: June Democratic Primary debate (second night in Miami)
Jun 27, 2019
Amy Klobuchar:
Allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices & re-import
2,500 drugs have gone up in double-digits since he came into office. Instead, [Trump]gave $100 billion in giveaways to the pharma companies.
My proposal is to do something about pharma, to take them on, to allow negotiation under Medicare, to bring in less expensive drugs from other countries
Source: June Democratic Primary debate (first night in Miami)
Jun 26, 2019
Amy Klobuchar:
Medicare/Medicaid can be step towards universal care
I think we share the goal of universal health care. This idea is that you use Medicare or Medicaid without any insurance companies involved, you can do it either way. And the estimates are 13 million people would see a reduction in their premiums,
12 more million people would get covered. I think it is a beginning and the way you start and the way you move to universal health care.
Source: June Democratic Primary debate (first night in Miami)
Jun 26, 2019
Beto O`Rourke:
Biggest provider of mental healthcare in Texas are the jails
Q: When you ran for Senate, you praised a bill that would replace private insurance. This year, you're saying you're no longer sure?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.
Source: June Democratic Primary debate (first night in Miami)
Jun 26, 2019
Bill de Blasio:
Don't defend private health insurance; it's not working
Q [to Rep. O'Rourke]: Would you replace private insurance?O'ROURKE: No. I think the choice is fundamental to our ability to get everybody cared for. Our plan says that if you're insufficiently insured, we enroll you in Medicare.
But if your health care plan works for you and your family, you're able to keep it.
DE BLASIO: Wait, Congressman O'Rourke; private insurance is not working for tens of millions of Americans when you talk about the co-pays, the deductibles, the
premiums, the out of pocket expenses. It's not working. How can you defend a system that's not working?
O'ROURKE: That's right. So for those for whom it's not working, they can choose Medicare.
DE BLASIO: You've got to start by acknowledging the system is not working for people. You are defending private insurance.
Source: June Democratic Primary debate (first night in Miami)
Jun 26, 2019
Cory Booker:
Too many profiting off of people's pain
Health care should be an American right. I believe the best way to get there is Medicare for all. But I have an urgency about this. There are too many people profiteering off of the pain of people in America, from pharmaceutical companies to insurers.
The overhead for insurance that they charge is 15%, while Medicare's overhead is only at 2%. We can do this better. more access and more affordable costs until we get to my goal which is every American having health care.
Source: June Democratic Primary debate (first night in Miami)
Jun 26, 2019
Elizabeth Warren:
Medicare-for-All would prevent many people from going broke
I spent a big chunk of my life studying why families go broke. One of the number-one reasons is the cost of health care, medical bills. That's not just for people who don't have insurance.
It's for people who have insurance. Look at the business model of an insurance company. It's to bring in as many dollars as they can in premiums and to pay out as few dollars as possible for your health care.
That leaves families with rising premiums, rising copays, and fighting with insurance companies to try to get the health care that their doctors say that they and their children need.
Medicare for all solves that problem. Health care is a basic human right, and I will fight for basic human rights.
Source: June Democratic Primary debate (first night in Miami)
Jun 26, 2019
Elizabeth Warren:
$23B in insurance profits means they want no change
The insurance companies last year alone sucked $23 billion in profits out of the health care system. That doesn't count the money that was paid to executives, the money that was spent lobbying Washington.
We have a giant industry that wants our health care system to stay the way it is, because it's not working for families, but it's sure as heck working for them. It's time for us to make families come first.
Source: June Democratic Primary debate (first night in Miami)
Jun 26, 2019
John Delaney:
Keep what's working and fix what's broken
Q [to Rep. O'Rourke]: Would you replace private insurance?Rep. Beto O'ROURKE: No. Our plan says that if you're insufficiently insured, we enroll you in Medicare. But if your health care plan works for you and your family, you're able to keep it.
Mayor Bill DE BLASIO: You've got to start by acknowledging the system is not working for people. Why are you defending private insurance?
Rep. John DELANEY: 100 million Americans say they like their private health insurance.
I think we should be the party that keeps what's working and fixes what's broken. I mean, doesn't that make sense? We should give everyone in this country health care as a basic human right for free, full stop.
But we should also give them the option to buy private insurance. Why do we have to stand for taking away something from people?
Source: June Democratic Primary debate (first night in Miami)
Jun 26, 2019
John Delaney:
Medicare-for-All would negatively impact hospitals
If you go to every hospital in this country and you ask them one question, which is how would it have been for you last year if every one of your bills were paid at the Medicare rate? Every single hospital administrator said they would close.
The Medicare for all bill requires payments to stay at current Medicare rates. To some extent, we're supporting a bill that will have every hospital closing.
Source: June Democratic Primary debate (first night in Miami)
Jun 26, 2019
Tulsi Gabbard:
Medicare-for-All will reduce bureaucratic costs
What we're talking about is our objective, making sure that every single sick American in this country is able to get the health care that they need. I believe Medicare for all is the way to do that. I also think that employers will recognize how much
money will be saved by supporting a Medicare for all program, a program that will reduce the administrative costs, reduce the bureaucratic costs, and make sure that everyone gets that quality health care that they need.
Source: June Democratic Primary debate (first night in Miami)
Jun 26, 2019
Page last updated: Dec 01, 2021