“If I am elected president, I will issue on my first day in office an executive order paving the way for waivers from ObamaCare for all 50 states. Subsequently, I will call on Congress to fully repeal ObamaCare.”
“The reforms that I propose, which are based on the same philosophical tenets as the reforms I offered during my last presidential campaign in 2008, return power to the states, improve access by slowing health care cost increases, and make health insurance portable and flexible for today's economy.”
“Health care is more than just one-sixth of the American economy. It is a source of well-being for individuals and families. We are blessed with much that is good in American health care. But we have taken a turn for the worse with ObamaCare, with its high taxes and vastly expanded federal control over our lives. I believe the better course is to empower the states to determine their own health care futures...
“If I am elected president, I will issue on my first day in office an executive order paving the way for waivers from ObamaCare for all 50 states. Subsequently, I will call on Congress to fully repeal ObamaCare.
“The reforms that I propose, which are based on the same philosophical tenets as the reforms I offered during my last presidential campaign in 2008, return power to the states, improve access by slowing health care cost increases, and make health insurance portable and flexible for today's economy.
“Step 1: Give states the responsibility, flexibility and resources to care for citizens who are poor, uninsured or chronically ill... both to improve their access to care and to improve the functioning of insurance markets for others.
“Step 2: Reform the tax code to promote the individual ownership of health insurance. The tax code offers open-ended subsidies for the purchase of insurance through employers. This subsidy is unfair — as it doesn't apply to insurance purchased on one's own. I propose to give individuals a choice between the current system and a tax deduction to buy insurance on their own. This simple change creates the best of both worlds. Absolutely nothing will change for those who like their current coverage. And individuals who don't get coverage through their employers will have portable, lower-cost options.
“Step 3: Focus federal regulation of health care on making markets work. This means both correcting common failures in insurance markets as well as eliminating counterproductive federal rules. For example, individuals who are continuously covered for a specified period of time may not be denied access to insurance because of pre-existing conditions. And individuals should be allowed to purchase insurance across state lines, free from costly state benefit requirements. Finally, individuals and small businesses should be allowed to form purchasing pools to lower insurance costs and improve choice.
“Step 4: Reform medical liability. We should cap non-economic damages in medical malpractice litigation. The federal government would also provide innovation grants to states for reforms, such as alternative dispute resolution or health care courts.
“Step 5: Make health care more like a consumer market and less like a government program. This can be done by strengthening health savings accounts that help consumers save for health expenses and choose cost-effective insurance. For example, we should eliminate the minimum deductible requirement for HSAs. The market reforms I am proposing will drive down costs, better inform consumers and improve the quality of health care in our nation.”
Romney made some edits between his hardback book "NO APOLOGY: The Case for American Greatness" and his paperback edition "NO APOLOGY: Believe in America."
On page 177 of both books he stated:
"My own preference would be to let each state fashion its own program to meet the distinct needs of its citizens...
"We made it possible for each newly insured person to have better care, and ultimately healthier and longer lives... It's portable, affordable health insurance-- something people have been talking about for decades."
Immediately after that last sentence the hardback version had:
"We can accomplish the same thing for everyone in the country, and it can be done without letting government take over health care."
The paperback version had:
"And it was done without government taking over health care."
The message in both editions is consistent with his national plan as stated above, and neither calls for Massachusetts' plan to be implemented nationwide. The hardback version more explicitly suggests that better care and affordable insurance is possible throughout the country. In otherwords, in the following debate exchange, Gov. Perry got it wrong and Gov. Romney got it right:
PERRY: “As a matter of fact, between books, your hard copy book, you said it was exactly what the American people needed, to have that Romneycare given to them as you had in Massachusetts. Then in your paperback, you took that line out...”
ROMNEY: “I actually wrote my book, and in my book I said no such thing. What I said, actually -- when I put my health care plan together
-- and I met with Dan Balz, for instance, of The Washington Post. He said, "Is this is a plan that if you were president you would put on the whole nation, have a whole nation adopt it?"
“I said, "Absolutely not." I said, "This is a state plan for a state, it is not a national plan." ”
As noted above, Rick Perry had supported a Federal Healthcare mandate.
Another candidate who supported a federal mandate on Healthcare was Newt Gingrich:
CNS News - Newt in 1993 and in May 16, 2011 demanding an individual health care mandate
FoxNews - Newt condemning Republican efforts to reform Medicare as 'radical, right-wing social engineering' and says there should be a federal healthcare mandate. One day after backlash, Gingrich flips on issue, stating opposition to a federal healthcare mandate.
The previous newsclip shows Rush Limbaugh lamblasting Gingrich over his comments. This is not the first time Limbaugh has lamblasted Gingrich.
Foxnews - Limbaugh on Gingrich's comments that Reagan era is past and move on, consider new ideas - March 2009
Back to comments on Gingrich's health mandate statements:
Foxnews Insider - Special Report with Charles Krauthammer
Meanwhile Gingrich stands by earlier statement on republican medicare reforms (where he said they were radical and right wing social engineering).
He then says he would offer a modified, watered down version of the same plan.
Nov 30, 2011 - Gingrich sticks to views on Medicare Reform
Until his sudden flip on May 16, 2011, Newt Gingrich had a history going back to 1993 (when Hillarycare was introduced), as previously noted, of supporting a national healthcare mandate:
“Romney is far from being the potential 2012 Republican presidential contender with the most politically problematic record on health care.
“That title likely belongs to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), ... In his post-congressional life, Gingrich has been a vocal champion for mandated insurance coverage -- the very provision of President Obama's health care legislation that the Republican Party now decries as fundamentally unconstitutional...
“In the mid-2000s, he partnered with then-Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) to promote a centrist solution to fixing the nation's health care system. A July 22, 2005, Hotline article on one of the duo's events described the former speaker as endorsing not just state-based mandates (the linchpin of Romney's Massachusetts law) but "some federal mandates" as well. A New York Sun writeup of what appears to be the same event noted that "both politicians appeared to endorse proposals to require all individuals to have some form of health coverage." ...
“A simple newspaper archive search bears this out. At an Alegent Health event in Omaha in 2008, Gingrich said it was "fundamentally immoral" for a person to go without coverage, show up at an emergency room and demand free care...
“In a June 2007 op-ed in the Des Moines Register, Gingrich wrote, "Personal responsibility extends to the purchase of health insurance. Citizens should not be able to cheat their neighbors by not buying insurance, particularly when they can afford it, and expect others to pay for their care when they need it." An "individual mandate," he added, should be applied "when the larger health-care system has been fundamentally changed."
“And in several of his many policy and politics-focused books, Gingrich offered much the same.
“In 2008's "Real Change," he wrote, "Finally, we should insist that everyone above a certain level buy coverage (or, if they are opposed to insurance, post a bond). Meanwhile, we should provide tax credits or subsidize private insurance for the poor."
“In 2005's "Winning the Future," he expanded on the idea in more detail: "You have the right to be part of the lowest-cost insurance pool and you have a responsibility to buy insurance. ... We need some significant changes to ensure that every American is insured, but we should make it clear that a 21st Century Intelligent System requires everyone to participate in the insurance system." ”
“Gingrich... was happy to tout it in that 2005 Talk of the Nation appearance.
“ "Our goal has to be for 100 percent of the country to be in the insurance system," he said. "So that means finding ways through tax credits and through vouchers so that every American can buy insurance including, I think, a requirement that if you're above a certain level of income you have to either have insurance or post a bond." ”
“A think tank founded by GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich collected at least $37 million over the past eight years from major health-care companies and industry groups...
“The Center for Health Transformation, which opened in 2003, brought in dues of as much as $200,000 per year from insurers and other health-care firms...
“The health center advocated, among other things, requiring that “anyone who earns more than $50,000 a year must purchase health insurance or post a bond,” a type of insurance mandate that has since become anathema to conservatives...
“The center attracted a long list of global health-care firms and interest groups, which paid $5,000 to $200,000 a year, based on their size, to be members. Based on archived membership lists going back to 2003, that means the center brought in as much as $6.25 million per year from higher-level members giving $50,000 or more, totaling at least $37 million since 2003. That does not include many other sources of revenue, such as dues from smaller members... The think tank also drew funding from employers with sizable health-care costs, such as Detroit’s Big Three automakers, records show...
“Although Gingrich gave up ownership of the think tank earlier this year to begin his candidacy, the group still bills him prominently as its founder and sells a long list of Gingrich-related books, videos and other products...
“The Gingrich health center’s support for such a mandate was part of an “Insure All Americans” plan that appears to have disappeared from the center’s Web site Thursday.
“Gingrich has characterized his previous support for insurance mandates as a response to President Bill Clinton’s more government-focused health-care proposal in the 1990s.”
Meanwhile, before running for president, Newt Gingrich also praised Romneycare:
“As a Republican presidential candidate, Newt Gingrich has been critical of the changes to the Massachusetts health care system Mitt Romney implemented as governor, but a recently surfaced 2006 newsletter shows Gingrich praised the law soon after it was passed.
“ "The health bill that Governor Romney signed into law this month has tremendous potential to effect major change in the American health system," reads an April 2006 essay, under the headline "Newt Notes." The essay was published in a newsletter from the Center for Health Transformation, a company Gingrich founded.”
More important, before running for president, Newt Gingrich praised the individual mandate in Obamacare:
GINGRICH: “The real foundation and most important part of this is individual rights, responsibilities, and expectation of behavior. We believe that there should be ‘must carry’ – that is, everybody should either have health insurance, or if you’re an absolute libertarian, we would allow you to post a bond, but we would not allow people to be free riders, failing to insure themselves and then showing up at the emergency room with no means of payment. If you have must carry, then the insurance companies have told us that we can have ‘must issue,’ and you will therefore have a system in which you don’t have to worry about cherry-picking and maneuvering. As we move beyond today’s press conference at the White House, this is the kind of general model we’re going to be advocating.” (Newt Gingrich, Conference Call, “ARRA: Impact On Healthcare Systems,” 5/11/09)
Perry and Gingrich are not the only presidential candidates who were in favor of a federal individual mandate:
Rick Santorum on a federal health care mandate--
“If choice is what Pennsylvania voters want in health reform, choice is what they're getting in prescriptions from gubernatorial and U.S. Senate candidates.
“The 11 gubernatorial candidates and three Senate hopefuls agree that the U.S. health care system needs doctoring: Nearly 37 million Americans and 1 million Pennsylvanians are uninsured.
“Also, the national tab -- at $800 billion -- consumes 14 percent of the Gross National Product and is bankrupting state welfare budgets.
“But the remedies they prescribe are as diverse as potential cures for the hiccups...
“In the national arena, [U.S. Sen. Harris] Wofford has distanced himself from the Clinton proposal, calling it too long, complicated and bureaucratic. Yet, the freshman Democrat is short on specific alterations he would make. For instance, he wants employers and employees to share the cost of health benefits, yet has set no minimum or maximum percentages...
HUMOR - JOKES
