State of Alabama Archives: on Health Care

Tommy Tuberville: ObamaCare a failure; supports Health Savings Accounts

Tommy Tuberville: Calls ObamaCare "a failed experiment." Advocates a "return to the free market." Supports Health Savings Accounts and companies competing across state lines.

Doug Jones: Fix, not end, ObamaCare. Asked Trump to reverse Justice Dept. support for lawsuit seeking to repeal ACA.

Tommy Tuberville: COVID: against lockdowns; we don't believe in socialism

Tommy Tuberville: Yes. Called Trump "the right guy at the helm" "because he's a business guy." State lockdowns are "government telling you what to do . we don't believe in socialism."

Doug Jones: No. Criticized the administration for failing to ensure adequate nationwide virus testing. Criticized Trump COVID relief executive orders as "more for show than actual help."

Chris Sununu: Allow importation of prescription drugs from Canada

Chris Sununu: Put suicide prevention for veterans at the forefront

Kay Ivey: Incentivize medical professionals to build rural practices

Kevin Stitt: SoonerCare 2.0: Medicaid modest premiums & work requirements

Did you know that Oklahoma has 10 different state agencies passing money through the Medicaid program in Oklahoma? And 18 state entities that license health care facilities and providers? You cannot convince me that operating that many bureaucracies is an efficient way of doing business. And it has to change. This is why I am calling for the Legislature to begin the process of creating one central health care agency.

Tommy Tuberville: ObamaCare must go; return to free-market

Arnold Mooney: Free market healthcare

• Improving Education and Repealing Common Core
• States' Rights and Limited Government
• Free Market Health Care
• Pro-Life and Pro-Family
• Right to Bear Arms
• Increased Employment and Commerce
• Protecting Personal Property Rights
• Transportation

John Merrill: Concerned about rural healthcare access

Arnold Mooney: Replace ObamaCare with block grants for Medicaid

Walt Maddox: Expand Medicaid so all citizens receive care

Chris Countryman: Expand Medicaid; health care for all

Luther Strange: Repeal the total failure of ObamaCare

Roy Moore: Repeal Obamacare; allow competition

Doug Jones: Fix, don't end, ObamaCare

1. All Americans deserve the right to quality, affordable healthcare.
2. No American should be unable to make ends meet from out-of-control medical bills.
3. Pre-existing conditions should never be a reason to deny care or make care unaffordable.
4. Preventative care should be a foundation of our health care system. It is inefficient and dangerous for Americans to rely on the emergency room to treat preventable illness.

Stacy Lee George: Local control of Medicaid; no single payer

Tommy Battle: Hands tied on Medicaid abuse as it's a federally run program

TB: You know, fraud abuse is something that we all need to jump on but it's very tough to address situations where most of the work that they're doing and they're talking about doing is federal programs being administered federally.

Chris Countryman: Quality affordable care available to everyone

Ron Crumpton: ObamaCare is a success, but it is just the first step

Marcus Bowman: ObamaCare threatens status of best health care in the world

A: Strongly oppose. We had the best health care in the world and ObamaCare was a major departure that threatens that long-term status. Plus, Americans should never be fined if they decide they do not want to purchase something.

Ron Crumpton: Move to a single-payer/ Medicare for all system

A: Strongly agree. Move to a single-payer/ Medicare for all system.

Gary Palmer: When fully implemented, ObamaCare will be a nightmare

When fully implemented, it will be a nightmare. When the Obama Administration begins to enforce the implementation of ObamaCare, you'll be forced to pay stiff penalties for not purchasing the government's mandated policies.

ObamaCare must be repealed and replaced with a national health care policy that allows people to buy the health insurance they want and need and that allows market competition between health insurance providers that will result in more choices for plans and at lower costs.

Robert Bentley: Don't expand Medicaid, even if paid for by federal dollars

Essential to ObamaCare is Medicaid expansion--a federal government dependency program for the uninsured. Since 1980, Medicaid spending has increased nationally by over 1500%. Here in Alabama, Medicaid takes up 35% of our General Fund.

Under ObamaCare, Medicaid would grow even larger--bringing millions more people to a state of dependency on government, and saddling our state and our nation--the taxpayers--with the enormous expense.

Now they are telling us we'll get free money to expand Medicaid. Those are your hard-earned tax dollars. Our great nation is $17.2 trillion in debt and it increases by $2 billion every single day. That is why I cannot expand Medicaid in Alabama. We will not bring hundreds of thousands into a system that is broken and buckling.

Robert Bentley: Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is not Affordable

And the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act does not protect patients. 22% of primary care doctors account for 90% of primary care billing. If we were to add 300,000 to Medicaid--where would they receive care?

Already in Alabama, because of ObamaCare, over 87,000 people have seen a change in their coverage, and you or someone you know has likely seen your premiums double. Business and job growth is being stifled. Employers are leaving positions unfilled, or laying off workers so they can fall under the employee threshold that would require them to participate in ObamaCare.

Robert Bentley: Federal takeover of our health care system will kill jobs

William Barnes: Affordable health care for everyone

President Obama campaigned on health reform and the idea of affordable health care for all individuals and he was elected to the presidency based on that being a major part of his platform. The people spoke. I think it would be an injustice to the American people to repeal what was passed.

We should have affordable health care for everyone!

I've done bankruptcies in my practice for people and one of the things that I've found is that a majority of them-- about 60%--have to declare bankruptcy because of the lack of health insurance. The Republicans will say that "all they had to do was go to the emergency room" and that is nonsense. And that's not the way American should be. We take care of one another.

Kay Ivey: ObamaCare does much more harm than good

While providing affordable health care to every American is a noble, compassionate goal, President Obama's federally mandated plan will do much more harm than good. If it is passed, almost 120 million Americans could lose their private coverage. In the end, government bureaucrats would make your health care choices? Not your doctor, not you.

On top of that, taxes would have to be raised on almost all Americans to pay for these "free" services. And, if a serious budget crisis ever hit, the government could limit the amount of care and services you and your family would be able to receive.

Kay Ivey: Each state creates its own insurance pool for high risk

• Remove the tax penalty for families who choose to buy their own health insurance.
• Spend our federal health care dollars more responsibly, instead of spending $1.6 trillion on a plan financed by tax increases and savings from Medicare and Medicaid.
• Develop health insurance plans for each state, not for the whole country. Every state faces its own health care challenges; each state should be able to create its own insurance pool for high-cost individuals.
• We need more legal reform. We need tort-reform legislation that addresses the exorbitant cost of malpractice insurance for doctors due to the frivolous lawsuit abuse brought on by greedy trial lawyers.
• Create a new category of one-time insurance called "patient indemnity insurance" to purchase coverage for a botched surgery or other medical complication.
• Reform malpractice law by granting immunity to medical professionals who provide emergency or charity care