Alaska Senate candidate Joe Miller says his family benefited from Medicaid and a state-run health care program for low-income children and pregnant women.
Miller previously acknowledged receiving federal farm subsidies for land he owned in Kansas in the 1990s, as well as low-income hunting and fishing licenses for him and his wife in Alaska.
As a conservative candidate, he's criticized certain entitlement programs. Sitting Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who's running for re-election as a write-in candidate against him, called Miller a hypocrite.
As The Huffington Post has reported, Miller on his campaign website clearly defines his position on the health care issue:
I support the repeal of ObamaCare. First and foremost, there is no Constitutional authority for it. Currently nearly half of the state governments have filed suit in federal court because they share this view.
Second, even if ObamaCare were Constitutional, its baseline benefit is built upon a crumbling foundation, and it will do nothing to control costs. This legislation adds millions of new beneficiaries to the already broken Medicaid program and relies in part on finding hundreds of billions in savings from the broken and going bankrupt Medicare program. The reimbursement rates on both of these programs are so low that many doctors in Alaska will not see patients or greatly limit the number of patients they will see.
The Tea Party-backed candidate has also reportedly communicated a desire to phase out Medicare.
Miller told the Anchorage Daily News he's struggled in the past, and that there's a proper role for government. He says the question is whether power is held at the state or federal level.
Miller says he hasn't received government assistance "for years."