George Bush Sr. on Health Care President of the U.S., 1989-1993; Former Republican Rep. (TX)

Parkinson's disease & used a wheelchair at end of life

1964: Medicare is socialized medicine

George seemed to have regressed. His 1964 campaign was opposed to everything his father represented: civil rights, the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, open housing, Medicare. George called Medicare "socialized medicine" and Martin Luther King Jr. "a militant."

Lost a daughter at age 3 to leukemia

We are taking action on AIDS, despite complaints

BUSH: We have increased funding for AIDS. We've doubled it. My request for this year was $4.9 billion for AIDS, 10 times as much for AIDS victim as per cancer victim. I think that we're showing the proper compassion and concern. I was a little disappointed in Magic, because he came to me and I said, "Now, if you see something we're not doing, get ahold of me, call me, let me know." He went to one meeting, and then we heard that he was stepping down.

PEROT: If you're going to die, you don't have to go through this 10-year cycle that FDA goes through. People with AIDS are more than willing to take that risk.

CLINTON: We need to put one person in charge of the battle against AIDS to cut across all the agencies. We need to accelerate the drug approval process. The President should lead a national effort to change behavior.

Frivolous lawsuits run up medical costs by $25 billion

BUSH: Clinton failed to take on the malpractice suit people, these frivolous trial lawyers' lawsuits that are running costs of medical care up by $25 billion to $50 billion. He refuses to put any controls on these crazy lawsuits. If you want to help somebody, don't run the costs up by making doctors have to have 5 or 6 tests where one would do for fear of being sued, or have somebody along the highway not stop to pick up a guy and help him because he's afraid a trial lawyer will come along and sue him. We're suing each other too much and caring for each other too little.

PEROT: We've got plans lying all over the place in Washington. Nobody ever implements them.

Choice and coverage: health insurance tax credit

Increase taxes on cigarettes

Let people buy into Medicaid; no mandated insurance

BUSH: One thing I will not do is sock every business in the country and, thus, throw some people out of work. I this economic recovery going. What I will do is permit people to buy into Medicaid. I believe that's the answer. I am proud to have been part of an administration that past the first catastrophic health bill.

There isn't any such thing as free out there. It either gets passed along as increased prices or it gets passed along by people being put out of work. So, I think we ought to do it in the Medicaid system. I think we ought to do it by full enforcement of the catastrophic h insurance. I think we ought to do it by everybody doing what they can do out of conscience. It's a terrible problem in terms of flexibility on private insurance. But I just don't want to mandate it and risk setting the recovery back.

Fight AIDS by encouraging families; test AIDS at marriage

Education is important, but I'm troubled by teaching every little kid how to use a condom. Monogamous sex and sex with love is very important. I think that the values should be at the family level, the local school level, the local community level, the church and religious-centered level. I did come out for mandatory testing at the time a marriage license is issued. The papers played it up as being very cautious on this question. Certainly, intravenous dirty needle or infections should be strongly and roundly condemned.