Tom Steyer on Health Care Democratic Presidential Challenger; CEO

Mandatory Coronavirus vaccines; and other immediate actions

STEYER: If it were necessary to take the vaccine to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus through the United States, yes, I would. But let me talk for a second about Coronavirus. Because what we're seeing is that this is a pandemic that hasn't been handled well. Back in 2014, there was an Ebola outbreak in Africa; President Obama did a fantastic job of controlling it. We're seeing the exact opposite from this president. We're seeing a president who just asked Congress for money to deal with it today. The World Health Organization declared an emergency in January. So what we're seeing here, the Coronavirus may or may not turn into a worldwide epidemic. But what we know for sure is that it's going to have a huge impact on the world economy as we try to deal with it.

Break corporate stranglehold to get public option

V.P. Joe BIDEN: The proposal I lay out limits drug cost. It allows Medicare to negotiate with drug companies for the price. It sets a system whereby you cannot raise the price of a drug beyond the cost of medical inflation.

STEYER: Look, we've had this conversation so many times. Everybody on this stage believes that affordable health care is a right for every single American. And it makes no sense and the government has to step in. I do agree with Vice President Biden that we should move and develop the Affordable Care Act with a public option. But the real question is this: This is not a new problem. Why do we keep having this conversation? We have a broken government. It has been bought by corporations that include the drug companies, the insurance companies, and the private hospitals. How do we actually break the corporate stranglehold on our government so that we can get any of these things passed?

Term limits will break stranglehold on low taxes for rich

Supports public option; allow private insurance

Rampant excesses of the pharmaceutical industry have put many life saving medications out of reach for America's patients. We must utilize the power of the federal government to negotiate lower prices for patients and break the corporate stranglehold that the pharmaceutical companies have on our health care system.

More funding is needed for mental health care

Big Pharma charges Americans 10x what they charge abroad

STEYER: We have a group of corporations led, really, by the drug companies who've bought our government. If you look at how we're being treated under law by those companies, it is somewhere between infuriating and scary. They charge us more than they charge any other people in the whole world, sometimes 10 times more for the same drugs. And in this case, they're actually working to preserve long-term extremely valuable monopolies for themselves. But it's much bigger than that. These companies are controlling what's going on in the government. They charge us what they want. We can't go to Canada to buy the same drug much cheaper. And in fact, the government is prevented legally from negotiating with them. What's going on here is we're going to have to break ultimately the power of these corporations to own our government and to control what happens to us.

Directly fund academic research to find cure for AIDS

STEYER: The way that we can go after that is by directing science through universities, through research to solve the problem. So if you look at what Mr. Trump has done, he has cut research funding across the board in every one of his different budgets. I think that's the exact wrong thing to do. What we should be doing in a case like trying to come up with solutions to AIDS, with cures for AIDS, is going directly to the best scientists and funding them as much as necessary, as much as conceivably effective to make sure that we solve this problem.

Open Medicare to all who want it

Keep private health insurance; but add public option

"I am not in favor of telling 150 million Americans who get their health care through their employment, including a bunch of union workers, that by fiat they can't do that any longer," he said. "I believe the way that we should end employment-based health care is providing a public option that is so much cheaper and better."

Healthcare must be a RIGHT, not a privilege

Pharmaceutical companies continue to raise prices of drugs--not because production of these drugs got significantly more expensive, but because they wanted to increase their own profits. Many Americans are living without coverage, praying they won't get sick and go bankrupt trying to pay off their medical debts.

Healthcare must be a RIGHT, not a privilege--and our government must act to protect the foundations of our health.

Women need reproductive care; GOP wants to take it away

2016: Increase cigarette tax by $2 per pack

Report on Steyer's stance and spending on ballot initiatives:
• California Proposition 56, Tobacco Tax Initiative (2016)
• Steyer Supported; Steyer spent $1 million; outcome: Approved
• California Proposition 56 was on the November 8, 2016, ballot in California as a combined initiated constitutional amendment and state statute. It was approved.
• A "yes" vote favored increasing the cigarette tax by $2.00 per pack, with equivalent increases on other tobacco products and electronic cigarettes.
• A "no" vote opposed increasing the cigarette tax by $2.00 per pack, with equivalent increases on other tobacco products and electronic cigarettes.
• The tobacco tax increase went into effect on April 1, 2017.

We need transparency on all drug prices