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Ron Paul on Health Care
This candidate has withdrawn from the election
"We've had managed care in this country since the early 1970s, and it hasn't worked well. It's very, very expensive, and it's the fault that we changed our ERISA law and our tax laws that created this corporatism that runs medicine. Wall Street rakes off the profits. The patients are unhappy. The doctors are unhappy. And it's a monopoly now. Who lobbies us in Washington? The drug companies and the HMOs. They come. And now what is the cry for? Socialized medicine. That's not the answer. We need to get the government out of the way. Inflation hits the middle class and the poor the most. Those are the people who are losing it. We don't have enough competition. There's a doctor monopoly out there. We need alternative health care freely available to the people. They ought to be able to make their own choices and not controlled by the FDA preventing them to use some of the medications."
2007 GOP Presidential Forum at Morgan State University Sep 27, 2007
"I think we have to reject what we have, and most people agree with that. But most everyone says we need is total socialized medicine, and I don't like that.... We don't have so much a government socialized system, but we have a mixture of government involvement with the bureaucracy at the same time we've created a corporate-run medical system.... The laws were changed [in the early 1970s] to encourage tax benefits to corporations, and then mandates on these corporations on providing medical services.... This has failed. The costs have gone up, the profits have gone to the HMOs, the PPOs, the hospital management companies to the drug companies, and on and on. And it's undermined the doctor-patient relationship."
Congress needs to craft innovative legislation that makes health care more affordable without raising taxes or increasing the deficit.
The lesson is clear: when government and other third parties get involved, health care costs spiral. The answer is not a system of outright socialized medicine, but rather a system that encourages everyone - doctors, hospitals, patients, and drug companies - to keep costs down. As long as "somebody else" is paying the bill, the bill will be too high.
We need to get the government out of the way. Inflation hits the middle class and the poor the most. Those are the people who are losing it. We don't have enough competition. There's a doctor monopoly out there. We need alternative health care freely available to the people. They ought to be able to make their own choices and not controlled by the FDA preventing them to use some of the medications.
2007 GOP Presidential Forum at Morgan State University Sep 27, 2007
We've had managed care in this country since the early 1970s, and it hasn't worked well. It's very, very expensive, and it's the fault that we changed our ERISA law and our tax laws that created this corporatism that runs medicine. Wall Street rakes off the profits. The patients are unhappy. The doctors are unhappy. And it's a monopoly now. Who lobbies us in Washington? The drug companies and the HMOs. They come. And now what is the cry for? Socialized medicine. That's not the answer. We need to get the government out of the way. Inflation hits the middle class and the poor the most. Those are the people who are losing it. We don't have enough competition. There's a doctor monopoly out there. We need alternative health care freely available to the people. They ought to be able to make their own choices and not controlled by the FDA preventing them to use some of the medications. quote
2007 GOP Presidential Forum at Morgan State University Sep 27, 2007
Voted NO on the State Children's Health Insurance Program. The bill increases total funding for the program to $60 billion over the next five years and provides health insurance for 9 million currently uninsured American children. The $7 billion yearly expansions were a major sticking point for the White House and ultimately lead to the fourth presidential veto from the Bush administration.
We don't need a village, a bureaucrat, or the pharmaceutical industry raising our children. That's what parents need to be doing.
The following are bills Congress should pass to reduce health care costs and leave more money in the pockets of families: HR 3077 makes it more affordable for parents to provide health care for their children. It creates a $500 per child tax credit for medical expenses and prescription drugs that are not reimbursed by insurance. It also creates a $3,000 tax credit for dependent children with terminal illnesses, cancer, or disabilities. Parents who are struggling to pay for their children's medical care, especially when those children have serious health problems or special needs, need every extra dollar.
The Comprehensive Health Care Reform Act puts control of health care back into the hands of the individual through tax credits, tax deductions, Health Care Savings Accounts (HSA), and Flexible Savings Accounts. By giving individuals tax incentives to purchase their own health care, the Comprehensive Health Care Act will help more Americans obtain quality health insurance and health care. Specifically, the Comprehensive Health Care Act: 1. Provides all Americans with a tax credit for 100% of health care expenses. The tax credit is fully refundable against both income and payroll taxes. 2. Allows individuals to roll over unused amounts in cafeteria plans and Flexible Savings Accounts (FSA). 3. Makes every American eligible for a Health Savings Account (HSA), removes the requirement that individuals must obtain a high-deductible insurance policy to open an HSA; allows individuals to use their HSA to make premiums payments for high-deductible policy; and allows senior citizens to use their HSA to purchase Medigap policies. 4. Repeals the 7.5% threshold for the deduction of medical expenses, thus making all medical expenses tax deductible.
The following bill Congress should pass to reduce health care costs and leave more money in the pockets of families: HR 3075 provides truly comprehensive health care reform by allowing families to claim a tax credit for the rising cost of health insurance premiums. With many families now spending close to $1000 or even more for their monthly premiums, they need real tax relief - including a dollar-for-dollar credit for every cent they spend on health care premiums - to make medical care more affordable.
One big problem arises from the 1974 ERISA law, which grants tax benefits to employers for providing health care, while not allowing similar incentives for individuals. This results in the illogical coupling between employment and health insurance. As such, government removed the market incentive for health insurance companies to cater to the actual health-care consumer. As a greater amount of government and corporate money has been used to pay medical bills, costs have risen artificially out of the range of most individuals.