Health care was once a weapon of Republicans. Around KC, it’s now the Democrats’ turn
Speaking outside the bus Monday on Davids' behalf was former
Sebelius, former secretary of health and human services, was speaking as part of a nationwide tour by the group Protect Our Care, dedicated to preserving the ACA and highlighting the Republican attempts to repeal the law and its mandate that insurance companies cover pre-existing conditions.
"We have to make sure that never again do insurance companies get to pick and choose who gets coverage and who doesn't," Sebelius said.
Health care has been a featured issue in every election since the ACA passed in 2010. Previous elections saw
Now
Meanwhile,
Amid that backdrop the Davids-Yoder race for
Yoder did vote dozens of times to repeal Obamacare.
But he says he supports extending protections for pre-existing conditions, and the
Meanwhile, Yoder and his allies are blasting Davids for supporting a single-payer system, saying it would force people off private insurance plans and lead to long waits for care.
"We think this would destroy what Americans love about their health care system," Yoder told The Star. "We're at a crossroads. This election, both in my district and across the country, will decide whether we're forced into a European system or a Canadian system or maintain the system we have."
That's also a stretch.
Davids has said that she's open to single-payer as a long-term policy goal, but has repeatedly said that it's not a realistic proposal while
In a phone interview she said
"It doesn't matter if you're a Democrat or a Republican," Davids said. "When it gets down to it, all of us need health care, all of us need to be able to afford our prescriptions drugs, all of us need to be able to afford and understand what we're paying for when we're accessing health care."
Yoder also said lowering prescription drug costs is a priority, pointing to his vote for a "gag clause" bill that ensures pharmacists are allowed to tell customers when they could pay less by paying cash.
Yoder said the health care policies he wants to pursue revolve around increasing competition, increasing price transparency and decreasing administrative costs. They include longtime Republican standbys, like limiting medical malpractice liability and reducing insurance restrictions so it's easier for companies to sell plans across state lines.
Yoder also wants to expand health savings accounts and continue his advocacy for increased medical research funding through the
"We spend a lot of time debating payment systems," Yoder said, "but not enough time understanding how the breakthroughs and life-saving cures are created."
But
Obamacare again
In
Like Yoder, Hawley has responded with an ad blitz saying he supports covering pre-existing conditions and challenging McCaskill to do it outside the Obamacare framework.
Meanwhile, Americans for Prosperity, a conservative group pushing to repeal Obamacare, launched a statewide ad campaign against McCaskill this week highlighting less popular parts of the law, like high premiums for older people in the individual market who don't qualify for subsidies.
The furor over covering pre-existing conditions has largely ignored the fact that the ACA is now missing one of the ingredients that insurers say is key to making such coverage work: the individual mandate that Americans carry insurance or pay a financial penalty.
That's the only part of the law
The repeal of the individual mandate was part of the Republican tax bill, which Davids called an "irresponsible piece of legislation."
"The mandate was included (in the ACA) because it's part of what helps to ensure the costs across the board are stabilized," Davids said. "I definitely think the mandate, it served a purpose."
McCaskill said bringing back the mandate is "an option," but she believes there are other ways to close the loophole, like allowing insurers to charge higher premiums for people who buy in outside of regular open enrollment periods -- similar to what Yoder and the
McCaskill also suggested creating a "Copper Plan" with higher deductibles but lower premiums than the plans currently sold on the ACA exchange.
"I think there's ways to create incentives to get healthy people in the pool that may fall short of a mandate and there's a lot of them we can talk about," said McCaskill, who co-sponsored the pharmacy gag clause bill.
Even as the debate over Obamacare continues to rage, some left-wing leaders like
Most definitions of socialized medicine hew closer to the British-style system in which hospitals are government facilities and doctors and nurses are government employees, similar to the
The "Medicare-for-All" bills introduced by Sanders and
Davids has previously said she's open to that kind of change, but not wedded to it.
"Of course universal health care coverage is the ultimate goal and 'Medicare for All' is one of the ways it can happen. ... But we need to be focused on things we can do," Davids said after she won the August Democratic primary in a crowded field.
Other countries, like
Other races
"They're heading there very soon and they're also the heaviest users of health care that are out there on the individual and small group market, so many believe that will help rate reductions occur," Davis said.
Watkins' campaign didn't respond to a request for an interview on his health care priorities. His campaign website says little about the issue, other than that he wants to preserve Medicare for future generations.
Health care has also been a feature, to a lesser extent, in the tight
Democratic state Sen.
Her Republican opponent,
His campaign has offered few details about how he would implement that.
"We will do a pilot program in a county or region of the state first, hopefully within my first year in office," Kobach said in a statement released by the campaign. "I would set up a task force to work through details of how payments would occur."
Independent candidate
Kobach said he also wants to introduce work requirements for "able-bodied" people on KanCare.
The current
Includes reporting by The Star's
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