Steve Forbes on Health Care 2000 Republican Primary Candidate for President

Replace “gatekeepers” with health care vouchers

Give small-business employees same options as others

Forbes supports the following principles regarding health care:
• Support health care strategies focused on prevention
• Allow small business owners & employees and the self-employed to have the same deductibility for health costs as corporations and large employers
• Expand eligibility for tax-free medical savings accounts
• Forbes says, “Allow all Medicare beneficiares freedom to choose from a wide variety of private health plans, just like federal goverment employees can do.” Source: 2000 National Political Awareness Test , Jan 13, 2000

  Fight AIDS by changing people’s personal behavior

  On AIDS in Africa: I think we should encourage groups here in America and in Africa that are working to tackle this disease to get the information out there on people’s personal behavior. In many of these countries people aren’t getting the word on how they can behave to help stop this epidemic because the government won’t do it. Private groups, religious groups are willing to. We should urge them to do so. Source: GOP Debate in Michigan , Jan 10, 2000

  Solve health care affordability with choice

  Q: How would you help people on fixed incomes pay for health care? A: I proposed that people on Medicare have the same kind of choice that members of Congress and those who work for the federal government have: being able to choose from several hundred different health care plans. If you need prescriptive medicines, you can pick a plan that will provide that need. If you need long-term care, you can do the same thing. I want to give people choice, put health care back in the hands of the people. Source: Republican debate in West Columbia, South Carolina , Jan 7, 2000

  Allow opting out of Medicare via private doctors

  A Court of Appeals ruled that the elderly can indeed be treated outside of Medicare for procedures the government deems “unreasonable”- that is, procedures that the Medicare bureaucracy believes medically unnecessary. For services covered by Medicare, alas, Congress’ prohibition remains in place. Congress should repeal this poison pill and allow patients, if they so choose, to be treated outside of Medicare. Source: Fact and Comment, Forbes Magazine , Nov 15, 1999

  Health Care Declaration of Independence

  The real cure for what ails our health care system today is less government and more freedom. We need a new “Health Care Declaration of Independence” that takes power out of the hands of the government and puts it back in the hands of individuals and families, where it belongs.
  • All Americans should be free to choose doctors they trust, specialists they need, and second opinions they want for themselves, their children, and their families.
  • All Americans should be free to purchase affordable, portable, private health insurance for themselves and their families.
  • No American should be forced into government-run health care programs or forced into managed care and HMO programs against their will.
  • We should also make it easier for people to open tax-free Medical Savings Accounts to cover routine medical expenses and meet their deductibles.
  Source: “A New Birth of Freedom,” p. 86-90 , Nov 9, 1999

  Expand Medical Savings Accounts

  We should allow anyone to buy Medical Savings Accounts (MSAs) -- not just the self-employed and companies with fewer than 50 employees, like federal law currently demands. We should stop Washington from imposing artificially high deductibles of $3,000 to $4,500 for working families. We should also let contributions to MSAs equal 100% of the deductible. And we should remove the cap on the number of MSAs that can be sold -- today, a ridiculously low 750,000 policies. Source: “A New Birth of Freedom,” p. 91 , Nov 9, 1999

  Consumerism works in health care

  The experts say that the problem is we want more health care. In a true free society, that demand should be an opportunity. You should be in charge. It is doable. By removing the barriers to medical savings accounts. [By having] your choice of hundreds of different health-care plans. If you need prescription insurance, you should have that choice at an affordable cost. If you want HMO, you can; if you want fee-for-service, you can. Consumerism works. Source: Republican Debate at Dartmouth College , Oct 29, 1999

  More Rx support, to avoid cross-border drug buying

  In a speech in NH, Forbes said Americans shouldn’t have to cross the border to buy prescription drugs. Forbes said he was discouraged to hear that some New Hampshire residents go to Canada to buy prescription drugs at cheaper prices. If elected, he promised a drug support system that would eliminate them to travel to Quebec for medicines. Source: Associated Press on 2000 presidential race , Oct 4, 1999

  Patient rights: choice, security, ownership

• All Americans should:
• be free to choose doctors they trust, specialists they need and second opinions they want for themselves, their children, and their families;
• be free from the fear of being left behind in this information-age economy without real health security;
• be free to purchase affordable, portable, private health insurance, including affordable catastrophic health insurance policies that they own and cannot be taken away.

Provider rights: meet customer needs; respond to market.

Against Doctor-Assisted Suicide as “barbaric”