Past and present Senate candidates from Montana: on Health Care


Jon Tester: I won't give up on repealing & replacing ObamaCare

Q: Support or Repeal Affordable Care Act (ACA), known as ObamaCare? Position on Medicaid expansion?

Matt Rosendale (R): Repeal. "I won't give up on repealing & replacing ObamaCare." Voted against MT Medicaid expansion.

Jon Tester (D): Support. Not perfect, but has helped rural hospitals & health centers, provided families with coverage, & stopped big insurance companies from denying folks coverage. Supports Medicaid expansion.

Source: 2018 CampusElect.org Issue Guide on Montana Senate race Oct 9, 2018

Albert Olszewski: Repeal and replace Obamacare, with bipartisan approach

As a physician and a legislator, my strategy for reforming our healthcare system consists of three parts:
  1. Immediate healthcare regulation reform.
  2. Repeal of the Affordable Care Act.
  3. The development of a new healthcare system utilizing a bipartisan approach.
    Source: 2018 Montana Senatorial website AlForSenate.us Oct 1, 2017

    Albert Olszewski: Repeal and replace Obamacare with bipartisan approach

    As a physician and a legislator, my strategy for reforming our healthcare system consists of three parts:
    Source: 2018 Montana Senate campaign website AlForSenate.us Aug 8, 2017

    Matt Rosendale: Full repeal of Obamacare

    Democrats have attacked Rosendale on his support for a full repeal of Obamacase. Said Montana Democratic spokesman Chris Meagher, "Matt Rosendale has failed at his job as insurance commissioner, and has done nothing to keep health care costs down," Meagher said. "He's another vote to increase health care costs and take away health care from thousands of Montanans. He's another politician interfering with a woman's right to make her own health care decisions."
    Source: Helena Independent Record on 2018 Montana Senate race Jul 31, 2017

    Albert Olszewski: Halt expansion of Medicaid; halt ObamaCare unfunded mandates

    While Olszewski remains opposed to ObamaCare and voted against Montana's expansion of Medicaid last session, he said Republican efforts in Congress to replace the federal health-care law with the American Health Care Act--a measure lawmakers ultimately withdrew--were misguided.

    "The intent was good but it missed the mark," he said. "It didn't do anything to touch the very complex network of regulations. What is killing me as an independent business owner are the regulations and unfunded mandates."

    Source: Flathead Beacon on 2018 Montana Senate race Apr 11, 2017

    Albert Olszewski: ObamaCare is imploding; shore up healthcare system

    Olszewski said, "Health care is in a struggle to decide what it's going to do in the 21st Century," he said. "Private health insurance is very unstable. And we're really at an area where ObamaCare is imploding. What we need to do is, we need to find a way to shore up, or fix the health-care system, so it doesn't collapse around us."

    [Olszewski opposed the unsuccessful Republican efforts in Congress to replace ObamaCare with the American Health Care Act as well-intended but "misguided".]

    Source: KTVQ on 2018 Montana Senate race Apr 11, 2017

    Amanda Curtis: ObamaCare: don't throw the baby out with the bathwater

    Curtis has supported a state expansion of Medicaid--something Republicans who control the Montana Legislature have blocked--and says now there are good things and bad things about the Affordable Health Care Act, also known as ObamaCare. "I'm not a person who will throw the baby out with the bathwater," Curtis said.
    Source: Billings Gazette on 2014 Montana Senate race Aug 16, 2014

    Sam Rankin: Tort reform plus higher deductibles & co-pays

    Source: 2014 Montana Senate campaign website, SamRankin.com Jul 27, 2014

    Champ Edmunds: Repeal ObamaCare; it's not a government responsibility

    Question topic: It is the government's responsibility to be sure everyone has health care and a livable income.

    Edmunds: Strongly Disagree

    Question topic: The Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) should be repealed by Congress.

    Edmunds: Strongly Agree

    Source: Faith2Action iVoterGuide on 2014 Montana Senate race Jul 2, 2014

    John Walsh: Yes to Medicare Rx negotiations; no to privatization

    While Walsh spent part of his speech blasting Daines, he also spelled out some of his own positions, saying he supports increasing the minimum wage, cutting waste in the defense budget, and allowing Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices.

    Walsh leveled his strongest attack yet against his likely challenger, Republican Steve Daines, calling Daines the purveyor of a "cruel ideology" that "only seeks to preserve privilege."

    Walsh slammed Daines for votes to "privatize Medicare," cut tax rates for the wealthy, shut down the federal government last October and cut food stamps. He pointed to Daines' 2013 vote for the proposed House Republican budget, which would have converted Medicare to a system of subsidies to help the elderly buy private insurance or traditional Medicare, as well as reduced tax rates for the wealthy and most taxpayers.

    Source: Ravalli Republic on 2014 Montana Senate race Mar 9, 2014

    John Bohlinger: Strong advocate of a single-payer system like Medicare

    I asked Bohlinger how he'd talk to Montana voters about the Affordable Care Act.

    "We know that the Affordable Care Act has met with a great deal of resistance in Montana," he said, carefully. "People are disappointed that it hasn't been able to deliver what was promised. We know that--oh, gosh, more than 30,000 Montanans have had their insurance policies canceled."

    "It's 38,000 now," interjected Bohlinger's strategist.

    "And the new insurance is more expensive than the old insurance," said the candidate. "It hasn't worked. We're strong advocates of a single-payer system. Medicare works for me." Bohlinger went on, talking about how Montana had invested in hospitals for state employees, and how one of them had outfitted him with a titanium hip. "My out-of-pocket cost was $300."

    Source: David Weigel on Slate.com on 2014 Montana Senate race Dec 13, 2013

    John Bohlinger: Expand Medicaid to cover 70,000 low-income Montanans

    John Bohlinger stepped into the health-care fray Wednesday, saying Gov. Steve Bullock should call a special session of the Legislature to expand Medicaid to cover 70,000 low-income Montanans without health insurance. "I think this is a crisis and this is something that has to be dealt with," Bohlinger told reporters. "I say let's bring the legislative assembly together to deal with the problem now."

    Yet the Democratic governor expressed no enthusiasm for the idea. Bullock, who proposed expanding Medicaid this year, has said that he sees no point in calling a special session, because the Republican majority in the Legislature is likely to reject it again.

    Bohlinger said the issue of Medicaid expansion is too important to wait until 2015. Thousands of low-income Montanans are unable to get health-care coverage that will be required next year, either because they've had difficult using the new online ObamaCare marketplace or because they're too poor to get any assistance, he said.

    Source: Ravalli Republic on 2014 Montana Senate race Nov 20, 2013

    Jon Tester: Protect people with pre-existing medical conditions

    Tester defended the Affordable Care Act at times, citing provisions that protect people with pre-existing medical conditions and protect sick people from having their insurance policies terminated. There are parts of the health care bill "that will help" working families and small businesses, he said. "To listen to the Congressman talk, you would think that the old system was just grand. It wasn't grand," Tester said.
    Source: Daily Inter Lake on 2012 Montana Senate debates Oct 14, 2012

    Jon Tester: Families can’t afford to get sick; that’s not health care

    You need somebody back in Washington DC who’ll address the health care problems in this country. Right now, when families can’t afford to get sick, that’s not health care. We’re 19th in the world; we didn’t used to be that way. You want to talk about medical research? We’re in the process of under-funding the National Institute of Health, so our medical research is going to start heading to the Pacific Rim, under this current administration’s watch. That’s not the right direction.
    Source: 2006 Montana 3-way Senate Debate at MSU Oct 9, 2006

    • The above quotations are from Winners and Losers
      Senate candidates from Montana.
    • Click here for definitions & background information on Health Care.
    • Click here for other issues (main summary page).
    Candidates and political leaders on Health Care:

    Retired Senate as of Jan. 2015:
    GA:Chambliss(R)
    IA:Harkin(D)
    MI:Levin(D)
    MT:Baucus(D)
    NE:Johanns(R)
    OK:Coburn(R)
    SD:Johnson(D)
    WV:Rockefeller(D)

    Resigned from 113th House:
    AL-1:Jo Bonner(R)
    FL-19:Trey Radel(R)
    LA-5:Rod Alexander(R)
    MA-5:Ed Markey(D)
    MO-9:Jo Ann Emerson(R)
    NC-12:Melvin Watt(D)
    SC-1:Tim Scott(R)     		Retired House to run for Senate or Governor:
    AR-4:Tom Cotton(R)
    GA-1:Jack Kingston(R)
    GA-10:Paul Broun(R)
    GA-11:Phil Gingrey(R)
    HI-1:Colleen Hanabusa(D)
    IA-1:Bruce Braley(D)
    LA-6:Bill Cassidy(R)
    ME-2:Mike Michaud(D)
    MI-14:Gary Peters(D)
    MT-0:Steve Daines(R)
    OK-5:James Lankford(R)
    PA-13:Allyson Schwartz(D)
    TX-36:Steve Stockman(R)
    WV-2:Shelley Capito(R)     		Retired House as of Jan. 2015:
    AL-6:Spencer Bachus(R)
    AR-2:Tim Griffin(R)
    CA-11:George Miller(D)
    CA-25:Howard McKeon(R)
    CA-33:Henry Waxman(D)
    CA-45:John Campbell(R)
    IA-3:Tom Latham(R)
    MN-6:Michele Bachmann(R)
    NC-6:Howard Coble(R)
    NC-7:Mike McIntyre(D)
    NJ-3:Jon Runyan(R)
    NY-4:Carolyn McCarthy(D)
    NY-21:Bill Owens(D)
    PA-6:Jim Gerlach(R)
    UT-4:Jim Matheson(D)
    VA-8:Jim Moran(D)
    VA-10:Frank Wolf(R)
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    Page last updated: Feb 23, 2019