Survey of 2020 Presidential campaign websites: on Health Care


Jo Jorgensen: Reduce costs by allowing real price competition

Republican and Democratic policies over the past 50 years are the reason health care has become so expensive. Their latest proposals to 'fix' health care will further micromanage your doctors and restrict your access. They differ only on whether this should be done by private insurance companies or government bureaucrats. We can reduce the cost of health care 75% by allowing real price competition, and by substantially reducing government and insurance company paperwork.
Source: 2020 Presidential campaign website jo20.com Jul 26, 2020

Rocky De La Fuente: Focus on goals of reform: cost, quality, access

We must focus on the three original goals of healthcare reform--lower costs, maintained or improved quality, and open access. The ACA was only successful at achieving partial open access. Substantive tort reform needs to be incorporated into the discussion because of the way it distorts prices. Pharmaceutical advertising should also be on the table since it disproportionately adds costs without improving quality.
Source: 2020 presidential campaign website rocky101.com Mar 4, 2020

Mike Bloomberg: Change patent laws to get generic drugs on the market faster

Negotiation is one of the best ways to keep drug prices down. Mike will work with Congress to give Medicare the power to negotiate on behalf of the 43 million Americans who participate in the Medicare (Part D) drug insurance program. Private insurance companies will be able to use the government-negotiated price. Mike will cap Medicare beneficiaries' out-of-pocket spending on drugs at $2,000 per year to protect Americans from overwhelming drug bills.

Mike will limit each new drug to a single patent lasting 20 years. This will speed up the time it takes for cheaper generic drugs to come on the market. The federal government makes enormous investments in drug research. Mike will make sure drug companies pay royalties to the government on any new drug that's developed via federally-funded research. This revenue could be used to lower drug prices in Medicare (Part D) or fund new research.

Source: 2020 Presidential campaign website MikeBloomberg.com Jan 20, 2020

Mike Bloomberg: Protect & expand access to care in rural areas

Mike will change rural hospital payment models so that they receive a fixed, capitated annual budget. Mike will double federal funding for Community Health Centers and increase funding for the National Health Service Corps, which offers loan repayment and scholarship opportunities for doctors who practice in high-need areas. Mike will also expand broadband access to rural areas and boost Medicare coverage of telemedicine services.

Mike will create a Medicare-like public option--a health plan that will be administered by the federal government but paid for by customer premiums. He will improve consumer choice and increase competition in the private insurance market, pushing down premiums for all. His plan will allow people of modest means who buy the public option to be eligible for the same subsidies that would apply on the health insurance exchanges.

Source: 2020 Presidential campaign website MikeBloomberg.com Jan 20, 2020

Mike Bloomberg: Ban flavored tobacco products of all kinds

Mike knows that kids are most attracted to flavored tobacco products, and he'll immediately work to ban all flavored e-cigarettes. He'll also ban menthol-flavored cigars and conventional cigarettes. Mike will discourage tobacco use by raising taxes on all tobacco products so that they are in line with those imposed on conventional cigarettes--and discourage people from starting in the first place.
Source: 2020 Presidential campaign website MikeBloomberg.com Jan 20, 2020

Mike Bloomberg: Require insurance coverage for mental health care

Mike believes health care is a right, and that includes mental health care. That's why he will make sure federal laws mandating insurance coverage for mental health and substance use disorders are enforced--so no American struggles to afford the care they need.
Source: 2020 Presidential campaign website MikeBloomberg.com Jan 20, 2020

Tom Steyer: Healthcare must be a RIGHT, not a privilege

The Right to Health: Right now, in this country, we don't have a healthcare problem. We have a serious ACCESS problem, and a COST problem. We are spending far more to get less: On average, other well-off countries spend a little over $5,000 a year, and they manage to cover everyone. And if it isn't free for their citizens, it's heavily subsidized. In America, we spend over $10,000 per person on healthcare each year, for less effective, less consistent care than those countries provide.

Pharmaceutical companies continue to raise prices of drugs--not because production of these drugs got significantly more expensive, but because they wanted to increase their own profits. Many Americans are living without coverage, praying they won't get sick and go bankrupt trying to pay off their medical debts.

Healthcare must be a RIGHT, not a privilege--and our government must act to protect the foundations of our health.

Source: 2020 presidential campaign website, TomSteyer.com Jul 8, 2019

Tom Steyer: Women need reproductive care; GOP wants to take it away

Every American deserves high quality health care. Women need reproductive care, struggling families need Medicaid, people with pre-existing conditions need coverage, and we all need health care we can afford. No one should have to risk their life savings to save their life. But Republican attacks on health care threaten the most vulnerable among us in order to give a tax break to the wealthiest few. They want to make health care more expensive and harder to get and to dismantle health programs like Medicaid that millions of Americans rely on. Together, we can stop Republican efforts to take away our health care.
Source: 2020 presidential campaign website, NextGenAmerica.org Jul 4, 2019

Joe Sestak: Our health system saved my daughter; let's make it a right

Healthcare is a deeply personal issue for me. My daughter was first diagnosed with brain cancer at the age of 4, but the quality care that the American people provided my family through the military gave her a chance to beat the disease. When Alex's cancer came back last year, more than a decade later, we were fortunate to have the same medical heroes who had saved her once, save her again--including a doctor who came out of retirement to perform the intricate brain surgery. I'm running for President so that one day soon all Americans will be able to feel the same sense of gratitude and good fortune my family feels when we think of my daughter's care and treatment. We must finally make healthcare a right, not a privilege.
Source: 2020 presidential campaign website JoeSestak.com Jun 23, 2019

Joe Sestak: Add public option to ObamaCare

Source: 2020 presidential campaign website JoeSestak.com Jun 23, 2019

Howie Hawkins: National health service controlled by community

A community-controlled national health service, delivering services largely through publicly owned clinics and hospitals employing salaried staff, and governed by a federation of locally-elected boards, will provide better accountability and cost control than a top-down Medicare-like national health insurance system paying mostly private providers to deliver health services.
Source: 2020 Presidential Campaign website HowieHawkins.us May 19, 2019

Eric Swalwell: Guarantee: If you're sick, you see a doctor & not go broke

Too many Americans still find themselves having to choose between paying rent or paying medical bills, between buying food or buying prescriptions-- and nobody should have to rely on a GoFundMe or a collection jar because they've fallen ill. Americans need a healthcare guarantee: If you're sick, you'll be seen by a doctor, and if you're seen, you'll never go broke because of it. We also must make a huge public investment in finding cures in our lifetime for the diseases that ail us, from Alzheimer's to ALS to cancer. Our technology is surging forward, our innovation is vast - we should focus that on saving lives.
Source: 2020 Presidential Campaign website EricSwalwell.com May 2, 2019

Seth Moulton: Don't tie healthcare with job; cover pre-existing conditions

Healthcare is a right, not a privilege. All Americans deserve health insurance that's affordable, that isn't tied to a job, and that covers all pre-existing conditions--no matter who you are.

President Obama fought hard to pass the Affordable Care Act, which expanded healthcare coverage to millions of Americans, protected pre-existing conditions, and set the standard for coverage. But even under Obamacare, costs for healthcare are too high and climbing.

That's why we need a public option, which would give all Americans a choice between public healthcare and their current insurance. Doing so would create competition in the market, driving down prices and giving Americans what they deserve: lower prescription prices, cheaper premiums, coverage for pre-existing conditions, and better care.

Source: 2020 Presidential Campaign website SethMoulton.com May 2, 2019

Howard Schultz: Medicare-for-All: $32T cost is out of touch with reality

Bernie Sanders' Medicare for All proposal would strip health insurance coverage from more than 180 million Americans and cost taxpayers more than $32 trillion to implement. With no way to pay for it, no chance of getting bipartisan support in Congress, and the potential for significant ramifications in treatment and innovation, this proposal confirms what we already knew: Sanders and the far-left wing of the Democratic party are out of touch with reality. Being a leader requires making hard choices and being honest. Bernie Sanders' plan does neither and only serves to advance a far-left agenda.
Source: 2020 Presidential Campaign website HowardSchultz.com Apr 10, 2019

Mike Gravel: VA4A: Veterans Administration healthcare for all

The United States should offer a fully socialized, National Health Service-style single-payer healthcare system for all Americans, covering everything that could conceivably be covered by a private insurer, including dental, vision, and hearing services. This would involve the abolition of private insurance companies. This plan might be called "Veterans Administration healthcare for all," or "VA4A" for short.
Source: 2020 Presidential campaign website MikeGravel.com Apr 9, 2019

Wayne Messam: People are dying due to high prescription drug prices

Six million Americans rely on insulin to survive, yet many cannot afford it as prices have tripled in recent years. These soaring prices have led to many diabetic patients using expired supplies or self-rationing. It's reprehensible that in the world's wealthiest country, some are dying because they cannot afford the simple injections they need to live.

If people are unable to live healthy lives, their productivity and ability to thrive at school, work or home suffers.

Source: 2020 presidential campaign website WayneForUSA.com Apr 9, 2019

Marianne Williamson: Medicare-for-all plus lifestyle and nutrition support

The biggest problem with America's health care system is that it is not a health care system so much as a sickness care system. It reflects an outdated perspective on health & healing, in which far too little attention is given to the actual cultivation of health and prevention of disease. I will robustly support high-quality universal coverage for every American, including a Medicare-for-all model. In addition, my administration would champion the following policy changes:
  • Require our healthcare system to reimburse medical professionals for a broader array of lifestyle and nutrition support, focused on preventing disease and/or addressing root causes.
  • Provide patients with more robust ongoing support from nutritionists, health coaches, therapists and mental health, exercise specialists, and other peripheral lifestyle treatment providers.
  • Fund programs in all our educational systems designed to teach nutrition and lifestyle skills to help cultivate long-term health.
    Source: 2020 presidential campaign website Marianne2020.com Apr 8, 2019

    Marianne Williamson: Towns should set up physical activities for community health

    We need to develop healthy habits at a community level. Towns and cities can, and should, look collectively at how active their populations are, and institute more ways to increase physical activity through walking paths, bike paths, and community events. The diet of entire cities should be reviewed, as well as ways that communities can contribute to one another's daily health.
    Source: 2020 presidential campaign website Marianne2020.com Apr 8, 2019

    Andrew Yang: Medicare-for-All establishes a basic right

    Healthcare should be a basic right for all Americans. Right now, if you get sick you have two things to worry about--how to get better and how to pay for it. Too many Americans are making terrible, impossible choices between paying for healthcare and other needs. We need to provide high-quality healthcare to all Americans and a single-payer system is the most efficient way to accomplish that. It will be a massive boost to our economy as people will be able to start businesses and change jobs without fear of losing their health insurance.
    Source: 2020 presidential campaign website Yang2020.com Mar 29, 2019

    Howard Schultz: False choice between socialized medicine & ObamaCare repeal

    Today, millions of American people are living in fear of losing healthcare or going bankrupt if they get sick. The far Left has called for government-run healthcare, even eliminating the private health insurance market. The far Right has called to repeal the Affordable Care Act for nearly a decade, with no clear replacement, which would leave people vulnerable, especially those with pre-existing conditions, and costs would absolutely skyrocket. Once again, neither is a viable solution.

    What's the truth? The truth is that healthcare costs are the biggest driver of unaffordable care. Yet neither side, extreme left, extreme right has offered and developed any kind of credible plan to reduce costs by increasing competition. Or requiring more transparency on prices from hospitals and drug companies. Or investing in preventive care. This is a problem that can be solved. We must bring down healthcare costs while increasing choice and access.

    Source: Purdue Univ. speech on 2020 Presidential Campaign website Feb 7, 2019

    • The above quotations are from Survey of 2020 Presidential campaign websites.
    • Click here for definitions & background information on Health Care.
    • Click here for other issues (main summary page).
    • Click here for more quotes by Mike Gravel on Health Care.
    • Click here for more quotes by Pete Buttigieg on Health Care.
    2020 Presidential contenders on Health Care:
      Democrats running for President:
    Sen.Michael Bennet (D-CO)
    V.P.Joe Biden (D-DE)
    Mayor Mike Bloomberg (I-NYC)
    Gov.Steve Bullock (D-MT)
    Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D-IN)
    Sen.Cory Booker (D-NJ)
    Secy.Julian Castro (D-TX)
    Gov.Lincoln Chafee (L-RI)
    Rep.John Delaney (D-MD)
    Rep.Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI)
    Sen.Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
    Gov.Deval Patrick (D-MA)
    Sen.Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
    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)
    CEO Don Blankenship (C-WV)
    Gov.Lincoln Chafee (L-RI)
    Howie Hawkins (G-NY)
    Gov.Gary Johnson(L-NM)
    Howard Schultz(I-WA)
    Gov.Jesse Ventura (I-MN)
    Republicans running for President:
    Sen.Ted Cruz(R-TX)
    Gov.Larry Hogan (R-MD)
    Gov.John Kasich(R-OH)
    V.P.Mike Pence(R-IN)
    Gov.Mark Sanford (R-SC)
    Pres.Donald Trump(R-NY)
    Rep.Joe Walsh (R-IL)
    Gov.Bill Weld(R-MA & L-NY)

    2020 Withdrawn Democratic Candidates:
    Sen.Stacey Abrams (D-GA)
    Mayor Bill de Blasio (D-NYC)
    Sen.Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
    Sen.Mike Gravel (D-AK)
    Sen.Kamala Harris (D-CA)
    Gov.John Hickenlooper (D-CO)
    Gov.Jay Inslee (D-WA)
    Mayor Wayne Messam (D-FL)
    Rep.Seth Moulton (D-MA)
    Rep.Beto O`Rourke (D-TX)
    Rep.Tim Ryan (D-CA)
    Adm.Joe Sestak (D-PA)
    Rep.Eric Swalwell (D-CA)
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    Page last updated: Dec 01, 2021