State of Nevada Archives: on Health Care

Adam Laxalt: Bash ObamaCare, but unclear on where healthcare is headed

Adam Laxalt: ObamaCare is most flawed piece of legislation ever endured

Adam Laxalt (R): Called ACA "the most flawed piece of major legislation America has ever endured." Will consider Medicaid work requirements. Wouldn't have expanded Medicaid but won't roll it back.

Steve Sisolak (D): Supports ACA and Medicaid expansion. Opposes Medicaid work requirements. "Need to do everything we can to make sure healthcare coverage is maintained."

Amy Klobuchar: Don't blow up ObamaCare with Medicare-for-All

Barack Obama: Problem isn’t mandating coverage, but affording it

Barack Obama: Bring GOP & Dems together to make healthcare affordable

“I’ll be a president who finally makes health care affordable to every single American by bringing Democrats and Republicans together. I’ll be a president who ends the tax break for companies that ship our jobs overseas and put a middle class tax cut into the pockets of working Americans. And I’ll be a president who ends this war in Iraq and finally brings our troops home. We are one nation and our time for change has come.”

Bernie Sanders: Will increase health benefits for all, in unions or not

Bill Richardson: State flexibility creates universal coverage without taxes

A: I would not increase taxes. The problem is the excessive costs of health care and the coverage. I would focus on preventive health care: like child obesity programs. But the big problem is the huge administrative costs of health care. 31% of the costs are administrative. A lot of it is waste. There are 50 Medicaid programs. They don’t give the states the flexibility to run them.

What I like is what some states have done, and that is a Massachusetts-style plan with good benefits that basically says we facilitate it for employers and employees to get mandatory coverage.

Source: 2007 AFSCME Democratic primary debate in Carson City Nevada Feb 21, 2007

Bob Beers: Repeal ObamaCare; it's not working and we can't afford it

Brian Sandoval: Supports lawsuits against Obama health care bill

The constitutional question created by the health care bill is monumental in all future matters involving state's rights. The ruling provides support for the claim that the federal health care legislation is at least, in part, unconstitutional. I believe the constitutional questions involved in the federal health care legislation deserve a hearing by the US Supreme Court.

Brian Sandoval: $874 decrease in public employees benefit plan

Catherine Cortez Masto: As A.G., refused to join lawsuit against ObamaCare

Cortez Masto defended her actions, saying she didn't see a direct Nevada interest in challenging Obamacare, which the U.S. Supreme Court found to be constitutional.

Dan Schwartz: Healthcare should be an economic right for all citizens

Danny Tarkanian: ObamaCare MUST be repealed; I guarantee I'll vote to do so

Nevadans all across our state have lost the health insurance policies they were told they could keep when ObamaCare was forced on us. In addition, many Nevadans have not only seen their monthly premiums skyrocket.

ObamaCare MUST be repealed. And here's my commitment to you, in writing.

If you give me your trust by sending me to the U.S. Senate, I will push for and vote to repeal ObamaCare in its entirety. Guaranteed. That's right, guaranteed. If I'm presented with the opportunity to vote to repeal ObamaCare, and fail to keep my word for any reason the way Sen. Heller did--I'll not only not run for another term, I'll RESIGN from the Senate!

Dean Heller: Let religious institutions reject objectionable coverage

Dean Heller: Block grants to the states instead of ObamaCare

Dean Heller (R): Mostly repeal. Voted for several repeal measures, though against at least one. Prefers block grants to the states.

Jacky Rosen (D): Supports ACA but would like to add public option and chance to buy into existing Medicaid programs

Q: Healthcare: Require people to work to receive Medicaid?

Dean Heller (R): Cosponsored bill allowing states to impose work requirements.

Jacky Rosen (D): No.

Dennis Kucinich: Key to reform: end role for for-profit insurance companies

A: This health care debate is one of the biggest frauds that’s been put on the American people. In 2000 and 2004, I brought forth a proposal, Medicare for All. It’s embodied in the Conyers-Kucinich bill. It provides for covering everyone. The big difference between what I’ve been talking about and all the other candidates are talking about is that my plan doesn’t provide for a role for for-profit insurance companies. Our party really isn’t legit on the issue of health care, because whenever you talk to these candidates, there’s always a role for the for-profit insurance companies. Do you know, almost 31% of the spending that goes for health care goes for the for-profit system -- corporate profits, stock options, executive salaries, advertising, marketing, the cost of paperwork.

Harry Reid: ObamaCare improved healthcare and also improved economy

Reid countered that the health care overhaul would not only improve health care, but improve the economy, too. "We had to do health insurance reform to remain competitive in the world economy. And it creates jobs--thousands and thousands of jobs," Reid added.

Harry Reid: Insurers' profit motive almost destroyed our economy

"My opponent doesn't like any insurance companies to have to do anything," Reid said, emphasizing the candidate's opposition to funding for mammograms and colonoscopies.

"America is a country of choices, not forcing people to buy things that they don't need," Angle said of so-called "Obamacare," invoking a theme she cited frequently throughout the night. "The solution is simple: We need to get the government out."

"Insurance companies don't do things out of the goodness of their hearts. They do it out of a profit motive and they have almost destroyed our economy," Reid fired back.

Hillary Clinton: Universal health care coverage by the end of my second term

A: We already spend more money than anybody else in the world, by about $800 billion, and we have 47 million uninsured. We're also at a competitive disadvantage because other countries either provide health care or don't, and our companies are trying to be competing in a global economy. So I want to figure out how we provide universal health care without putting billions more into the system. Let's get prescription drug prices down by negotiating with the drug companies, for example. I am going around the country, and I'm asking people's advice, then I'm going to be proposing a specific plan. You know, President Kennedy said in his inauguration that he wanted to have a man on the moon by the end of the decade. Well, I want to have universal health care coverage by the end of my second term.

Hillary Clinton: Still scarred from 1990s reform, but now doing it better

Hillary Clinton: Health care tax credit ensures affordability

Jack Carter: Support individual states enforcing their coverage standards

Jacky Rosen: Stabilize ObamaCare so premiums are reduced

"We're going to do everything we can to reduce those premiums so that no one will ever have to make the choice between taking their kid to the doctor and paying rent," Rosen says. "That is no choice."

Jacky Rosen: Add public option and Medicaid buy-in to ObamaCare

Dean Heller (R): Mostly repeal. Voted for several repeal measures, though against at least one. Prefers block grants to the states.

Jacky Rosen (D): Supports ACA but would like to add public option and chance to buy into existing Medicaid programs

Q: Healthcare: Require people to work to receive Medicaid?

Dean Heller (R): Cosponsored bill allowing states to impose work requirements.

Jacky Rosen (D): No.

James Vandermaas: Proposes Dual Payer plan, free to choose primary coverage

All people will be fully covered, utilizing both commercial health insurance or the ACA, with Comprehensive Medicare as the secondary payer. You will get to keep whatever insurance you already have--If you like it. It's still a free market under my plan, so you are free to get your primary coverage from anywhere.

Jared Fisher: Free market achieves both affordable AND effective care

The next Governor will be tasked with addressing healthcare long into the future. What do Nevadans really want from their healthcare: Affordable rates? Lower costs? Access? Quality healthcare? My gut tells me that people won't want to choose from that list of priorities; they'll want them all. As a free market, there is no reason this can't be accomplished. Making healthcare 'affordable' and 'effective' does not have to be mutually exclusive.

The ACA must be addressed. Whether it's as drastic as completely phasing it out, as the current administration wants to do, or finding a middle ground to fix the weak points, as Governor, I will make it one of my highest priorities.

Joe Biden: Got ObamaCare passed and will expand it

Joe Lombardo: Denounces state public option law as BS

Joe Lombardo: Mask mandate didn't work, it was political theater

John Edwards: Silence is betrayal about universal healthcare-we can't wait

Silence is a betrayal in America today. We cannot stand silent on 47 million of our own people who desperately need health care coverage and have no health care coverage. I am the first candidate to come out with a detailed, substantive, truly universal health care plan for every man, woman and child in America. And I want to say to you I don't want to wait six or eight years to have universal health care. I want to start putting universal health care in place as soon as I am sworn into office in January of 2009, which is what America needs. We can't wait.

Anybody who tells you that they're going to have a universal health care plan, but they don't have to find a new revenue source to pay for it -- they might have a bridge in Brooklyn they want to sell you too.

John Jay Lee: COVID: Unvaccinated, gets COVID, opposes mandates

Kenny Guinn: Fund alternatives to long-term care for seniors

Kenny Guinn: Double the funding for the disabled

We must invest in the health and welfare of all Nevadans. I believe we must measure success by how we are able to care for the most fragile of our citizens -- our children, our elderly, and those who are disabled.
• Therefore, I am proposing to double the funding that helps physically disabled Nevadans stay in their homes, with their families.
• In addition, my proposed increases in services to the developmentally disabled will eliminate all waiting lists for community-based services for these citizens.
• Furthermore, I am urging the creation of the Office of Disability Resources, which will combine several existing services in one location. The office will create a long-range plan to better provide services to individuals of all ages with disabilities.
• Finally, we will use federal grant money to develop policies and infrastructure that will allow the disabled to go to work without risking the loss of Medicaid or Medicare health coverage.

Kenny Guinn: Expand Senior Rx

Some seniors will save hundreds of dollars a month. For others, this program isn't about savings -- it's about the difference between receiving your needed medicine or doing without. Senior Rx is working, and we must expand it. It is time to offer these life-saving benefits to more Nevadans in need.

Mike Bloomberg: Cannot take away employer insurance from 160 million people

Ruben Kihuen: Expand Medicaid to ensure that no American is uninsured

I am proud to have fought for an expansion in Medicaid and the successful implementation of the ACA here in Nevada.

In Congress, I will:
• Fight any attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
• Demand lower prescription drug prices and give Medicare the ability to negotiate lower prices.
• Expand Medicaid in all states to ensure that no American is uninsured because their Governor decided that ideology is more important than making healthcare available to their constituents.

Sharron Angle: We're a country of choice; don't force people into insurance

Reid countered, "We had to do health insurance reform to remain competitive in the world economy. And it creates jobs--thousands and thousands of jobs," Reid added.

Sharron Angle: No medical conditions where coverage should be mandated

"My opponent doesn't like any insurance companies to have to do anything," Reid said, emphasizing the candidate's opposition to funding for mammograms and colonoscopies.

"America is a country of choices, not forcing people to buy things that they don't need," Angle said of so-called "Obamacare," invoking a theme she cited frequently throughout the night. "The solution is simple: We need to get the government out."

"Insurance companies don't do things out of the goodness of their hearts. They do it out of a profit motive and they have almost destroyed our economy," Reid fired back.

Shelley Berkley: Kidney transplant center helps Nevada but helps husband too

Acting just as aggressively, Heller began airing a quick-hit TV ad to let voters know Berkley is accused of helping line her wealthy husband's pockets. "Shelley Berkley took care of herself. She got caught," says the Heller ad. It notes a watchdog group listed Berkley as one of the "most corrupt members of Congress" for not disclosing her husband's ties to the University Medical Center kidney transplant program and for promoting bills to help kidney doctors.

The escalating ad wars come after an announcement of a formal House Ethics Committee investigation. The persistent ethics cloud is a blow to Berkley's campaign.

Shelley Berkley: Stop cuts to Medicare; no privatization for younger workers

The Berkley ad criticizes Heller for twice voting "to end Medicare as we know it," a popular Democratic charge against Republicans who want to privatize the program for younger workers.

Steve Sisolak: ObamaCare has helped those in need

Steve Sisolak: Do everything we can to maintain healthcare coverage

Adam Laxalt (R): Called ACA "the most flawed piece of major legislation America has ever endured." Will consider Medicaid work requirements. Wouldn't have expanded Medicaid but won't roll it back.

Steve Sisolak (D): Supports ACA and Medicaid expansion. Opposes Medicaid work requirements. "Need to do everything we can to make sure healthcare coverage is maintained."

Steve Sisolak: Expand coverage for those who need it

Susie Lee: Defend ACA; improve its coverage

Susie Lee: Don't repeal Obamacare, make necessary changes

Tom Vilsack: Focus on curing incurable diseases that drive up health cost

Tom Vilsack: Focus on wellness as part of universal coverage

A: We absolutely do need universal coverage. 47 million Americans do not have health insurance coverage, which means that they don't stop getting sick; they don't stop getting health care; they actually get it in the most ineffective and expensive way: in an emergency room. We can stop that, and we can create a more efficient health care system.

But it is much more than universal coverage. It is actually incorporating wellness into the system, at every level -- from the moment a child is born. So there are ways to do this without necessarily raising the tax burden on folks and certainly on working folks. You know, when working folks hear about tax increases, their interpretation is they may be next. And I think our party can do a better job being innovative and creative. We can look inside the budget.

Tom Vilsack: Help Medicare by sharing data & providing long-term homecare

A: Medicare's a much more difficult issue than Social Security. First and foremost, we have to stop paying for services and we have to start paying for results. We know today because we have inadequate data about our health care system, that in some communities you're more likely to get surgically worked on for a back injury than I might in some other community. [We should] take data and information about what works and what was the most efficient way of providing health care. That's one strategy.

Another strategy is to make sure that we have a long-term care system that encourages people to stay in their homes with greater dignity, provides assisted living as an alternative, and only puts folks in nursing homes when they want to be and when they need to be. You can do a substantial amount of work in that regard.

Catherine Cortez Masto: Let Medicare negotiate drug prices & subsidize insurance

In response, Cortez Masto lit into Laxalt as a self-serving politician who isn't interested in helping the state. "While I've been working for Nevadans, my opponent's been working for longtime D.C. lobbyists at a D.C. law firm that represents big oil companies ripping off our families. He supports Big Pharma," she said.

Cortez Masto said she has worked to combat rising costs by voting for the Inflation Reduction Act, which allows Medicare to negotiate drug prices with the industry and boosts funding to subsidize health insurance premiums.

Joe Lombardo: $17 million expansion of mental health services

Joe Lombardo: Substantially revise or repeal the Public Option