You completely twist the very nature and spirit of his positions. I can only presume that you have never even watched a single debate or interview where he has spoken on this subject. He is all about getting government out of health care choices and giving back responsibility, ultimately, to the consumer. How this is exactly accomplished will probably require years of reforms. Tort reform, loser pay laws, increasing competition and choices between the consumer and insurance companies, tax refunds for low income families to afford their own healthcare, and so on and so forth. He is no statist as you describe him.
Yes, he has sound bites he uses at debates. This was from a sit-down presentation for Congress, and I am quoting his words.
You explain what he meant by those words, if it’s different. He was asked the question everybody gets asked — what about pre-existing conditions.
What is YOUR answer to that question? I can tell you that the answer to that question is the crux of the entire health insurance debate. Cain refused to say “if you don’t buy insurance, you are out of luck.” Instead, he said we government had a role to make sure nobody was “left out”. In Obamcare, that is the safety net state programs for risk pools — and the mandate for all future beneficiaries, and requiring all companies to cover pre-existing conditions.
And what did he mean about the problem being employer-provided health insurance, and how does he propose to fix it? In 2008, McCain wanted to eliminate the deductions for it, to drive up the cost. Cain’s 9-9-9 plan does the same thing, eliminates deductions so it costs more for employers to provide health insurance.
See, I support the concept of people choosing their own insurance. But many large employers actually provide health insurance (usually with some management company, it’s like self-insurance on a group level). Employees like these programs, and they should be allowed to continue, but employees should have the right to take the equivalent in pay and buy their own (actually, I’d give the money to EVERY employee, and then they could buy the insurance back from their employer if they want).
What is Cain’s plan? It’s not on his web site (plans rarely are at any level of detail). He mentioned it, so I figure he must have some idea.