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Mike Gravel on Health Care
This candidate has withdrawn from the election
"Under the single-payer health care voucher plan we would issue vouchers to every single American. The vouchers, you don't pay for them, they're issued to you. You sign up every year for them. The vouchers will have a very modest co-pay, a very modest deductible, but that's it. Everybody gets the same product universally. And then if you want more than the product you got, you pay for it. There's no magic in this whole process. Somebody is going to pay. You know who pays, it's the average American."
SEIU Democratic Health Care Forum in Las Vegas Mar 24, 2007
"What we have to do is get a voucher system, where everybody in the country gets a voucher. You just sign up for it, you don't pay for it, because we are going to pay for this via a retail sales tax."
Understand that the health care that we're talking about, by and large, is going backwards. We're subsidizing the insurance companies. And all the plans that I've heard of, except Dennis', is a continued subsidization of the insurance companies.
2007 Democratic Primary Debate at Howard University Jun 28, 2007
Alaska Senator Mike Gravel advocates a National Health Care Voucher plan in which the government would issue vouchers to every American each year.
Under the single-payer health care voucher plan we would issue vouchers to every single American. The vouchers, you don't pay for them, they're issued to you. You sign up every year for them.
SEIU Democratic Health Care Forum in Las Vegas Mar 24, 2007
"What's wrong with health care in this country is that we saddle the business community with carrying it, and they can't do it because it's going to cost you your jobs, it's going to damage you internationally. Why? Historical accident--[that employers provide health insurance]. In the second World War when wages were frozen, the only way you could get people to come into your company and work was to give them a lot of health care benefits. The war is over and we don't have this freeze on wages, so we don't need that system to go ahead and carry. [Health care reform] involving employers and employees is a non-starter and it's a Band-Aid that is not going to work."
SEIU Democratic Health Care Forum in Las Vegas Mar 24, 2007
"We still don't have universal health care, and this is something that can be obtained if we are able to develop the right plans. Presently, what most of the proposals suggest that what we ought to do is charge business more, force them to pay the cost of health care for their employees and then let people go out and pay exorbitant prices to the insurance companies. That's wrong, that's going the wrong way."