Last updated on: 10/22/2015 11:13:46 AM PST
Should All Americans Have the Right (Be Entitled) to Health Care?
Pro (Yes)
Pro
"Affordable health care is a basic human right."
Source: "Health Care," www.hillaryclinton.com (accessed Oct. 21, 2015)
Pro
"Health care as a human right, not a means tested entitlement like Medicare, not a subsidized profit center for predatory insurance like Obamacare, but a Medicare for All system to provide quality care for all while saving trillions by streamlining the massive health insurance bureaucracy."
Source: Jill Stein, "Dr. Jill Stein Announces Formation of Exploratory Committee for 2016 Presidential Bid," jill2016.com, Feb. 6, 2015
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Con (No)
Con
"I am proposing that the federal government cut Medicaid and Medicare by 43%. Give the programs to the States, and also do away with the strings and the mandates that go along with Medicaid and Medicare... I believe that if the Federal government would have given me complete control of Medicaid and given me 43% less money in New Mexico that I could have effectively delivered health care to the poor in New Mexico... Is Health Care a right, I don't think so."
Source: "Gov. Gary Johnson's First Google+ Hangout," YouTube.com, Sep. 17, 2011
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Now Not Clearly Pro or Con
“As far as single payer [universal health care], it works in Canada. It works incredibly well in Scotland. It could have worked in a different age, which is the age you're talking about here.
What I'd like to see is a private system without the artificial lines around every state. I have a big company with thousands and thousands of employees. And if I'm negotiating in New York or in New Jersey or in California, I have like one bidder. Nobody can bid…
I'm not [in reference to Rand Paul saying Trump is still arguing for a single-payer system]. I don't think you heard me."
Source: Time, "Transcript: Read the Full Text of the Primetime Republican Debate," time.com, Aug. 11, 2015
[Editor's Note: Trump previously expressed a PRO opinion on this question. Read Trump's former position on the right to health care]
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FORMER CANDIDATES
(Candidates who have withdrawn or who no longer meet our criteria appear below in black and white and in alphabetical order.)
Pro (Yes)
Pro
"Martin O'Malley... believes access to health care should be a right--not a privilege."
Source: "Goals and Values for Providing Quality Affordable Health Care," martinomalley.com, Dec. 13, 2006
Pro
"I start my approach to healthcare from two very basic premises. First, health care must be recognized as a right, not a privilege. Every man, woman and child in our country should be able to access the healthcare they need regardless of their income. Second, we must create a national healthcare system that provides quality healthcare for all in the most cost-effective way possible...
As a result of an incredibly wasteful, bureaucratic, profit-making and complicated system, the US spends 17% of its gross domestic product – approximately $2.7tn annually– on healthcare. While insurance companies, drug companies, private hospitals and medical equipment suppliers make huge profits, Americans spend more and get less for their healthcare dollars.
What should the US be doing to improve this abysmal situation? President Obama's Affordable Care Act is a start...
The only long-term solution to America's healthcare crisis is a single-payer national healthcare program."
Source: Bernie Sanders, "A Single-Payer System, Like Medicare, Is the Cure for America's Ailing Healthcare," theguardian.com, Sep. 30, 2013
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Con (No)
Con
"We don't need universal health care mandated by federal edict or funded through ever-higher taxes... I advocate policies that will encourage the private sector to seek innovative ways to bring down costs and improve the free market for health care services... It is time to recognize that jobs don't need health insurance, people do, and to ease the burden on our businesses. Our employer-based system has outlived its usefulness, but the answer is a consumer-based system, not socialized medicine."
Source: "Issues: Health Care," mikehuckabee.com (accessed Oct. 30, 2007)
Con
"With regard to the idea of whether you have a right to health care, you have to realize what that implies. It's not an abstraction. I'm a physician. That means you have a right to come to my house and conscript me. It means you believe in slavery...
You're saying you believe in taking and extracting from another person. Our founding documents were very clear about this. You have a right to pursue happiness but there's no guarantee of physical comfort. There's no guarantee of concrete items. In order to give something concrete, you have to take it from someone. So there’s an implied threat of force.
If I'm a physician in your community and you say you have a right to health care, do you have a right to beat down my door with the police, escort me away and force me to take care of you? That's ultimately what the right to free health care would be. If you believe in a right to health care, you're believing in basically the use of force to conscript someone to do your bidding."
Source: US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions, "Diverting Non-Urgent Emergency Room Use: Can It Provide Better Care and Lower Costs?," help.senate.gov, May 11, 2011
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Not Clearly Pro or Con
"As a great country we need to make sure that there's adequate access to healthcare."
Source: Jeb Bush, "Protect and Secure Medicare for Future Generations," jeb2016.com, July 23, 2015
Not Clearly Pro or Con
"And when you take the most important thing that you have, which is your health care, and you put that in the hands of government bureaucrats, I think you have done the wrong thing. This is not what America is about. Do I believe in health care for everybody? Absolutely. But I think there are much better ways [than Obamacare] to get there, which leave the care in the hands of patients and of doctors."
Source: Meet the Press, "Meet the Press Transcript – May 18, 2014," www.nbcnews.com, May 18, 2014
None Found
None found as of Oct. 26, 2015
Not Clearly Pro or Con
"Congress should repeal Obamacare and make meaningful reforms to expand Health Savings Accounts, allow individuals to purchase insurance across state lines, and make health care more personal, portable, and affordable."
Source: Ted Cruz, "Healthcare," cruz.senate.gov (accessed Sep. 30, 2015)
Not Clearly Pro or Con
"[People] want better access and better care – things that we know only come from competition. This doesn't mean we end all regulations on our healthcare industry. But it does mean we find a fair balance that ensures access and quality while ending the grip of crony capitalism on our healthcare market."
Source: Facebook post, facebook.com/CarlyFiorina, June 25, 2015
None Found
No position found as of Sep. 24, 2015
None Found
No position found as of Sep. 25, 2015
Not Clearly Pro or Con
"I have worked to assemble a three part plan to serve as a foundation for the post-Obamacare era...
First, we should provide an advanceable, refundable tax credit that all Americans can use to purchase health insurance...
Second, we must reform insurance regulations to encourage innovation. Americans with pre-existing conditions should be able to find coverage through their state’s federally-supported, actuarially-sound high risk pools. Americans living in high-cost states should have the opportunity to purchase coverage across state lines. Consumer-centered products like health savings accounts should be expanded…
I believe we must move Medicaid into a per-capita cap system, preserving funding for Medicaid’s unique populations while freeing states from Washington mandates. Medicare, meanwhile, should be transitioned into a premium support system, empowering seniors with choice and market competition, just like Medicare Advantage and Part D already do.
It is my hope that all Americans will have access to affordable health insurance in the 21st century. These consumer-centered reforms will advance that goal the only way it can be advanced: by channeling the power of our free market."
Source: Marco Rubio, "My Three Part Plan for the Post-Obamacare Era," foxnews.com, Mar. 23, 2015
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