State of Wisconsin Archives: on Health Care

Tom Nelson: We need real leaders who will take COVID seriously

Tom Nelson: Backs Medicare for All

Tom Tiffany: Supports competition to lower health care costs

Bryan Steil: Protect individuals with pre-existing conditions

A: We need to lower the costs of health care. The Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, drove up the cost and made health care less affordable and thus less accessible to hardworking families here in Wisconsin. What we need to do is work toward a program of health care that puts individuals and doctors in charge of the decision-making process so that they can increase quality and lower the cost to health care.

I think that stands in stark contrast to my opponent who supports a government takeover of health care, and that's going to drive up the cost of health care. Individuals with pre-existing conditions need to be protected and need to be covered. I've been clear on that since day one. You can go in and address the disaster that is Obamacare, but still at the same time protect people with pre-existing conditions.

Tony Evers: Healthy Communities Initiative: increase access via Medicaid

Tony Evers: Exit Obamacare lawsuit; keep pre-existing coverage

Leah Vukmir: Full repeal of ObamaCare, period

Tammy Baldwin (D): Support. "Take repeal off the table & work to improve." Ultimately prefers Medicare for All.

Leah Vukmir (R): Repeal. "Leah supports full repeal of ObamaCare. Period."

Scott Walker: Sue to repeal ObamaCare; reject Medicaid expansion

Tony Evers (D): Support ACA. Accept Medicaid expansion.

Scott Walker (R): Repeal ACA. Suing to oppose ObamaCare

Tammy Baldwin: Take repeal off the table & work to improve ObamaCare

Tammy Baldwin (D): Support. "Take repeal off the table & work to improve." Ultimately prefers Medicare for All.

Leah Vukmir (R): Repeal. "Leah supports full repeal of ObamaCare. Period."

Tony Evers: Support ObamaCare; support Medicaid expansion

Tony Evers (D): Support ACA. Accept Medicaid expansion to "insure thousands more Wisconsinites who are struggling to find affordable health insurance."

Scott Walker (R): Repeal ACA. Suing to oppose ObamaCare & rejected Medicaid expansion, but used ObamaCare funding to help cover state costs.

Leah Vukmir: Opposed requiring health insurers to cover oral chemotherapy

In Baldwin's newest ad, cancer survivor Kristin Jome-Robley of Manitowoc took Vukmir to task for voting against a bill that required health insurance companies to pay for oral chemotherapy. Jome-Robley said, "Leah Vukmir, you ought to be ashamed."

Vukmir defended her vote and said it was "absolutely ludicrous that Tammy Baldwin is going to lecture me, as a nurse, as somebody who understands health care in the way that Tammy Baldwin doesn't."

She said the ad was a way for Baldwin to attack her "as a way to distract from her own problems at the Tomah VA." Vukmir continued, "Make no mistake about it: Tammy Baldwin let our veterans down at the Tomah VA. To have sat on a report that a doctor was over-prescribing opioids, a veteran died and many others became addicted, to me, it's unconscionable."

Phil Anderson: Oppose ObamaCare

A: Strongly Oppose- We must uncouple insurance from health care so that people have more affordable options.

Kelda Helen Roys: Strongly support ObamaCare

A: Strongly Support

Kathleen Vinehout: Healthcare is more than a right; it's a moral obligation

Scott Walker: State control of health insurance program, not federal

Leah Vukmir: Repeal ObamaCare; Medicaid as block grants

Bob Harlow: Full health coverage of your choice, capped at 9% of income

• You will never pay more than 9% of your income for healthcare.
• You can choose any doctor or specialist in the whole state for each exam or procedure. No more expensive insurance companies telling you what you can and can't do.
• You pay the difference between the 33rd percentile of bids in your region and the bid you choose capped at 9% of your income. If you choose a bid that is less expensive than the 33rd percentile of bids, you pay nothing.
• You do not have to pay anything out of pocket. Simply calculate how much you owe up to 9% of your income, and send a check to the State of Wisconsin.

Mike Gallagher: Replace ObamaCare with patient-centered free-market reforms

Bernie Sanders: For $500 more taxes, everyone gets $5,000 more healthcare

SANDERS: 29 million people have no health insurance today in America. We pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. One out of five Americans can't even afford the prescriptions their doctors are writing. Millions of people have high deductibles and co-payments. I don't know what economists Secretary Clinton is talking to, but what I have said, is that the family right in the middle of the economy would pay $500 dollars more in taxes, and get a reduction in their healthcare costs of $5,000 dollars. In my view healthcare is a right of all people, not a privilege, and I will fight for that.

Bernie Sanders: US is the only major country without universal health care

SANDERS: There is one major country that does not guarantee health care to all people. There is one major country--the United States--which ends up spending almost three times per capita what they do in the U.K. guaranteeing health care to all people, 50 percent more than they do in France guaranteeing health care to all people, far more than our Canadian neighbors, who guarantee health care to all people.

Hillary Clinton: Medicare-for-all is not economically feasible

CLINTON: We share the goal of universal health care coverage. But I think the people deserve to know how this would work. If it's Medicare for all, then you no longer have the Affordable Care Act, because the Affordable Care Act is based on the insurance system. So if you're having single-payer, you need to level with people about what they will have at the end of the process. Based on every analysis I can find, the numbers don't add up, and many people will be worse off than they are now.

Russell Feingold: 2010: I knew that over time, ObamaCare would work out

That race, like many others, turned on voter anger toward Washington, including the raw emotions over Obamacare, which Feingold voted to enact. "Oh no," Feingold said when asked whether he would have voted differently on the law looking back at it now. "I stood with my vote on the Affordable Care Act in 2010. I was one of the only candidates to do that," Feingold said. "I understand people have been lied to repeatedly [from Republicans] about what was in the bill. I regretted that, but it was fairly stated that over time that it would work out. That's exactly what's happened."

Glenn Grothman: Repeal ObamaCare

GROTHMAN: Strongly Agree

Glenn Grothman: ObamaCare is a harmful, bungled system

When we look at reforming health care in the future, I'll use the free market as my guide. Shopping around creates competition and competition breeds efficiency which results in lower costs for everyone.

Mark Neumann: Repeal ObamaCare

Mark Neumann: Yes

Tommy Thompson: Yes

Tommy Thompson: Repeal ObamaCare

Mark Neumann: Yes

Tommy Thompson: Yes

Ron Johnson: ObamaCare will cost the average family $2,100

"We didn't need a 2,600-page bill passed in the middle of the night to address the problems that do exist in our health care industry," Johnson fired back, arguing in favor of repealing a bill that he said amounts to a government takeover and will cost the average family $2,100.

Russell Feingold: Healthcare reform is a good compromise

"We didn't need a 2,600-page bill passed in the middle of the night to address the problems that do exist in our health care industry," Johnson fired back, arguing in favor of repealing a bill that he said amounts to a government takeover and will cost the average family $2,100.