While most 2016 Republican presidential contenders are on record opposing Obamacare and some have offered vague alternative proposals, Donald Trump has been on record for four years with a plan to on how to begin to rebuild the nation’s medical and insurance systems after repealing the health-care law.
The details, largely ignored by the news media, where contained in his 2011 book, “Time to Get Tough: Making America #1 Again.”
Speaking Monday on “Fox and Friends,” Trump revealed that if elected, the first items on his agenda would be to get rid of Obamacare and strengthen the U.S. military.
“Our country is a mess and there’s so many things that we could do,” Trump said.
“I want to build up the military so nobody messes with us,” the billionaire explained when he was asked what he would do first if elected. “I would bring it (military levels) back to where it was at the height because we’re in such trouble.”
“And I would absolutely repeal and replace Obamacare,” he added.
Working to repeal Obamacare was a central campaign pledge during the 2014 midterm elections where Republicans ultimately swept to power. In the run up to the polls, GOP politicians ran a reported 35,000 television ads promising to scrap the law.
Yet no concrete steps were taken to block Obamacare. Instead, GOP Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner eventually worked with the Democrats to fund the health-care law.
As far back as 2011, before most sections of Obama’s signature legislation even took effect, Trump was offering some alternatives in his “Time to Get Tough” book.
The reality star slammed Obamacare as a “job-killing, health care-destroying monstrosity,” and posited “it can’t be reformed, salvaged, or fixed. It’s that bad.”
“Obamacare has to be killed now,” he maintained, “before it grows into an even bigger mess, as it inevitably will.”
Beyond simply repealing Obamacare, Trump offered a basic follow-up plan that he argued would “bring down health-care costs and make health-care insurance more affordable for everyone.”
The first order of business, Trump wrote, involves policies and legislation to increase competition between insurance companies. Primarily, allowing citizens to purchase healthcare plans across state lines.
He urged Congress to use its constitutional authority over interstate commerce to pass bills allowing citizens in every state to purchase healthcare from providers nationwide.
“Increasing competition is common sense,” he wrote.
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Trump noted health-care costs vary drastically in each state, citing an example of an HMO plan for a 25-year-old male in California that costs $260 a month while a similar plan with equivalent benefits in New York at the time cost about $1,228.
Trump’s next order of business is to enact serious tort reform on frivolous lawsuits that, he argues, has resulted in doctors practicing “defensive medicine.”
He said doctors were usually ordering excessive testing and procedures to avoid being sued, citing a Pricewaterhouse Coopers study finding such defensive medicine accounts for at least 10 percent of all medical costs.
Trump’s plan? Capping lawsuit “pain and suffering” damages at $100,000 and the enactment of “loser pays” laws in which the loser pays the winner’s legal bills if the suit is determined to be baseless. Such legislation has already passed in Texas.
The other candidates
Not every GOP presidential hopeful has stated he or she will repeal Obamacare.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has said that as president he would “make fixing our broken health care system one of my top priorities.”
Yet as the New York Times reported last year, Bush reportedly netted more than $2 million as a board member with Tenet Health Care, a major hospital owner which, the Times reported, “supported President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, aggressively encouraged Americans to sign up for insurance under the program and trumpeted the legislation as a boon to the company’s finances.”
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has vowed to repeal Obamacare and replace it with a “consumer-centered plan.”
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has previously issued battle cries to GOP Congressmen to “redouble their efforts to repeal and replace this destructive and costly law.”
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz tweeted “I remain fully committed to the repeal of Obamacare – every single word of it.”
Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry has stated he would repeal and replace Obamacare.
Sen. Rand Paul has repeatedly called for the defunding of Obamacare.
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