GOP Candidates Debate Health Care, Pledge To Repeal 'Obamacare'

During the GOP debate in Florida on Thursday, an unemployed Floridian in the audience named Lynn asked the candidates what their policies could do to help her get affordable health insurance again. The candidates offered her a host of long-term solutions and big-picture theories in return.

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) told her she was the victim of government meddling. "When government gets involved in medicine, you don't [get] better care -- the cost goes up," Paul said. "You're suffering from the consequences of way too much government."

Asked how he'd help Lynn, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich was the first to beat the Obamacare horse. "Repeal Obamacare, repeal Dodd-Frank," the former House speaker said, referring to the financial reform bill. "Give her a chance to have a job ... You combine reforming our insurance system and getting the economy growing again, you cure an awful lot. She is not dependent on Barack Obama to take care of her."

Although his health care overhaul in Massachusetts served as a model for the president's, Mitt Romney, too, grabbed at the opportunity to bash "Obamacare" when asked how his policies could help Lynn. "It's bad medicine," he said of the Affordable Care Act. "The president has failed the American people." Meanwhile, as he has before, Romney admitted that his own plan enacted in Massachusetts was "not perfect," though he said most residents approved of it.

As much as Romney tried to distance "Romneycare" from "Obamacare," Rick Santorum clearly relished drawing a line between the two.

"What he just said is top-down government-run medicine is working pretty well in Massachusetts," Santorum said.

Romney's plan, Santorum went on, has "15 items in common with Obamacare ... 1 in 4 people in Massachusetts don't get the care they need. This is the top-down model that both of these gentlemen" -- Romney and Gingrich (who has voiced support for the individual mandate) -- "say they're against but have been for."

"We cannot give the issue of health care away in this election," Santorum added.

Romney, perhaps taken aback by Santorum's passion, responded, "It's not worth getting angry about...."

Comments

[Wa1111]

01:14 PM on 01/27/2012

Is Mitt referring to his reported, but not reported Swiss bank accounts? A REPUBLUCAN DEBATE WRIITEN BY ALFRED HITCHCOCK...FOR...THE THREE STOOGES Thoughts at 3 A.M. http://thoughtsatthreeam.blogspot.com/?spref=tw

[GoodSpeedRacer]

11:38 AM on 01/27/2012

Oops...Meant to share this link here ----> http://timtpost.com/2012/01/10/comprehensive-achievements-of-obamacare-care-to-share-it-with-the-54-who-favor-repealing-it/

[Haitiana4Obama]

08:10 AM on 01/27/2012

Some things such and empathy and honesty, even a debate coach can't teach you RMoney...

[wambam55]

08:05 AM on 01/27/2012

Lynn best hope she doesnt take ill any time soon,like this life time.Paul basicly said sorry about your luck but thats the way the cookie crumbles, and the rest that she better get a job.If she gets sick before then ,well, grave diggers need jobs too.The good news is if she takes ill she isnt married to Newt, so maybe she wont get dumped ,and if she dies Mitt will baptize her,Paul will make her family pay for the shovels to bury her and Rick will save her if she comes back as a fetus but otherwise she is on her own.

[Stephen McAbee]

08:27 AM on 01/27/2012

That's not what he said. "But your medical care should go with you. You should get total deduction on it."

[wambam55]

09:14 AM on 01/27/2012

Thats great if and when that happens,meanwhile Pauls solution for people who do not have or can not afford health care is for them to do without,maybe a church or good samaritan might help but the government is not to be involved.

[Kent1423]

09:06 AM on 01/27/2012

Paul (who by the way personally worked with poor patients by offering them lower cost/free medical care) is right in his suggestion that government insurance (as well as any insurance that covers routine visits) drive up the cost of health care. It's basic economics.

[ATLJunBug]

02:27 AM on 01/27/2012

Rick was on fire last night!!!!!

STANDING BY PRESIDENT OBAMA IN 2012
Note: Van Jones after Obama

[Porson Jebb]

02:17 AM on 01/27/2012

This unemployed Floridian in the audience named Lynn is lucky she doesn't have a pre-existing condition. If she did and Obamacare got repealed, she'd be screwed.

[jnpthebackroom]

01:22 AM on 01/27/2012

These are indeed issues to be angry about as citizens of The United States of America!

[kinogod]

11:21 PM on 01/26/2012

Specious bunch of bull hockey!

[HipsterCorgi]

11:16 PM on 01/26/2012

"'When government gets involved in medicine, you don't [get] better care -- the cost goes up,' Paul said.

Tell that to the people in this country who can't afford health care or who get $crewed by their health insurance companies.

[Red Russet]

11:29 PM on 01/26/2012

Just how expensive is the Congressional health care plan, and how much does it cost the House and Senate? Wanna bet 0?

We all need some of that.

[peteschwarze]

11:13 PM on 01/26/2012

they're so anti Obama they can't come up with an idea of their own. why not 3 for 1 incurance cost deduction for corporations to buy insurance? and NOT limit it to employees! let large corps buy insurance for CUSTOMERS in large groups in order to get the deduction. people get insured and the government actually would save money....even with the loss in revenue....because they wouldn't have to pay for as much healthcare. you might hate this idea...but it's original...and republicans can't do original anymore.

[GoDems2012]

11:07 PM on 01/26/2012

He is completely tone deaf to his base. Obviously Romneycare takes HCR off the table in 2012 if they run Romney.

[Diana Hibbard LoCascio]

10:56 PM on 01/26/2012

If Romney grew a pair, he could defend his health care program in Mass because it works. Instead, by needing to pander to the far right, he crashed and burned on this one.
Lynn got her answer. If she does not get a new job immediately with generous health insurance, she will be in worse shape if one of them get elected. I guess the many other people who want the same kind of job as she does will be out of luck if she gets it. I hope people can see this can happen to them through no fault of their own. Downsizing has hurt people and keeping health care out of reach in addition is cruel....

[Jannsmoore]

10:38 PM on 01/26/2012

Lynn, buried deep in the pile of steaming rhetoric from the candidates lies the answer to your question - what will the candidates do to help you get affordable health care? NOTHING. Get a better job and buy your own health insurance and stop bothering the candidates.
OK - that might be a slight exaggeration. They will get rid of the Affordable Care Act (which will make your health isurance more expensive) and they will get rid of Wall Street regulation (which WILL crash the countries economy again if not regulated). After that it will be very unlikely if not IMPOSSIBLE for you to afford health care.
So good luck Lynn. Oh and good luck America. These clowns are out to destroy the middle class.

[john rajah]

10:51 PM on 01/26/2012

Lynn clapped her hands when one of these GOPers said repeal Obamacare

Why or why do so many of us vote against our own interests?

[peteschwarze]

11:16 PM on 01/26/2012

could it be because so many of us don't know what our interests really are?

[ILoveMyCoffee]

10:29 PM on 01/26/2012

Tonight, Mitt Romney gave his best stance on the AHA: he basically described how wonderful it was because it is clearly the SAME THING HE PASSED IN MASSACHUSETTS!