NO, SENATOR CRUZ, Donald Trump does NOT want Single Payer health care. [archive]
As you read through chapter 8 of “Time To Get Tough” and you read through chapter 7 of “Crippled America” you will not find Mr. Trump calling for “Single Payer” health care coverage anywhere. In fact, in chapter 7 of “Crippled America” you will find that Mr. Trump specifically disavows his tepid and earlier support for a Single Payer system as one of the options he was considering as a person in the private sector more than 15 years ago.
He also calls for repeal and replace of Obamacare not “expansion of Obamacare” as Senator Cruz falsely states that he does.
Furthermore, in both books he calls for the following private sector reforms. Some of which are also called for under both Senator Cruz’s health care reform policy proposal and Dr. Ben Carson’s proposal. In addition to federal and state reforms. They are:
1.) Repeal of the McCarran Ferguson Act [archive] so health insurance can be sold across state lines.
2.) Expansion of Health Savings Accounts [archive] to promote price transparency & accountability.
3.) Tort (or Medical Malpractice Reform [archive])
4.) Reform of our health care social safety nets such as Medicaid.
5.) Mr. Trump has most recently added necessary reforms to be made [archive] to our broken Veteran’s Administration health care system specifically because it, like all other Single Payer systems is an unmitigated disaster!
Trump remarked [archive] recently, “How can Ted Cruz be an Evangelical Christian when he lies so much and is so dishonest?”
On a related note, Ann Coulter, on the sidebar of her site, responds to Cruz’s claim on February 10 that Trump “says we need to have full-on socialized medicine”–with specific reference to “the very last debate.” She provides debate transcripts wherein Trump discusses health care policy. Since there is no permanent link for this, I link an archive of the front page at anncoulter.com and reproduce the text:
TED CRUZ: LIAR –
Cruz on Megyn Kelly, Wednesday, Feb 10:
CRUZ: Well, Megyn, let’s be clear on health care. Even now as a candidate, Donald says we need to have full-on socialized medicine. In the Republican debates, he stood up and said, we ought to have socialized medicine like Canada and Scotland and at the very last debate, he said if you a Republican voters don’t support socialized medicine, then you are heartless and you want to let people die in the streets. You know, what we hear that kind of rhetoric all the time from Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, I don’t think Republican voters are interested in hearing a Republican candidate saying, they are heartless if they don’t want the government taking over medicine. And so, there’s a real choice on healthcare, if you want to see Bernie Sander’s style socialize medicine, Donald Trump is your guy. In his own words he describes himself as very, very liberal on health care.
What Trump actually said at the debates about health care — IN FULL:
FIRST DEBATE:
BAIER: Gentlemen, the next series of questions deals with ObamaCare and the role of the federal government.
Mr. Trump, ObamaCare is one of the things you call a disaster.
TRUMP: A complete disaster, yes.
BAIER: Saying it needs to be repealed and replaced.
TRUMP: Correct.
BAIER: Now, 15 years ago, uncalled yourself a liberal on health care. You were for a single-payer system, a Canadian-style system. Why were you for that then and why aren’t you for it now?
TRUMP: As far as single payer, 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.
You know why?
Because the insurance companies are making a fortune because they have control of the politicians, of course, with the exception of the politicians on this stage.
But they have total control of the politicians. They’re making a fortune. Get rid of the artificial lines and you will have…
(BUZZER NOISE)
TRUMP: — yourself great plans. And then we have to take care of the people that can’t take care of themselves. And I will do that through a different system.
(CROSSTALK)
RAND PAUL: I’ve got a news flash…
BAIER: All right, now, hold on, Senator Paul…
PAUL: News flash, the Republican Party’s been fighting against a single-payer system for a decade. So I think you’re on the wrong side of this if you’re still arguing for a single-payer system.
TRUMP: I’m not — I’m not are — I don’t think you heard me. You’re having a hard time tonight.
*********
LAST DEBATE
HAM: In the Democratic primary, Hillary Clinton has criticized Bernie Sanders’ plan for single payer government health care, noting it would require big, across the board tax increases for Americans. In doing so, she’s doubling down on Obamacare, despite its persistent unpopularity.
Mr. Trump, you have said you want to appeal Obamacare. You have also said, quote, “Everybody’s got to be covered,” adding, quote, “The government’s going to pay for it.” Are you closer to Bernie Sanders’ vision for health care than Hillary Clinton’s?
TRUMP: I don’t think I am. I think I’m closer to common sense. We are going to repeal Obamacare.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: We’re going to repeal Obamacare. We are going to replace Obamacare with something so much better. And there are so many examples of it. And I will tell you, part of the reason we have some people laughing, because you have insurance people that take care of everybody up here.
I am self-funded. The only one they’re not taking care of is me. We have our lines around each state. The insurance companies are getting rich on Obamacare. The insurance companies are getting rich on health care and health services and everything having to do with health. We are going to end that.
We’re going to take out the artificial boundaries, the artificial lines. We’re going to get a plan where people compete, free enterprise. They compete. So much better.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: In addition to that, you have the health care savings plans, which are excellent. What I do say is, there will be a certain number of people that will be on the street dying and as a Republican, I don’t want that to happen. We’re going to take care of people that are dying on the street because there will be a group of people that are not going to be able to even think in terms of private or anything else and we’re going to take care of those people. And I think everybody on this stage would have to agree…
(BELL RINGS)
… you’re not going to let people die, sitting in the middle of a street in any city in this country.
(APPLAUSE) ****