Rand on Obamacare Replacement: ‘People Are Trying To Make It Too Elaborate Now,’ ‘Adding In Some Gov’t Programs’

On Wednesday’s “Fox & Friends” on the Fox News Channel, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) touted his stated that Obamacare replacements are becoming “too elaborate now, and they’re adding in some government programs that I object to.” Rand also touted his own replacement bill.

Rand said that “People are trying to make it too elaborate now, and they’re adding in some government programs that I object to. So, for example, if you give people back money that they did not pay in taxes, that is basically an entitlement program. So, if you have a refundable tax credit, and you give everybody back money they did not pay in taxes, and you say we’re going to help you with your health insurance with that, how is that different than Obamacare subsidies? We just call them tax credits instead of subsidies, but they’re the same thing. It’s government money, of which there’s a shortage of. … So I think there is agreement on the previous repeal, put that forward, and we’re done in ten minutes, I promise you. put forward the repeal we had that we all voted on. we’re done in ten minutes. The replacement can be done as a separate bill, and it’s going to require more consensus, and frankly it’s going to require Democrats to vote for. but many of the items that we have disagreement on, put them in a separate package and we’re done with. We can be done in a week with repeal of Obamacare, if they’ll give us the repeal we voted previously.”

He added, “We do have a replacement bill, and I would put it forward on the exact same day. And this replacement bill that we have, would lower insurance cost. That’s what the president mentioned in his speech. We want less expensive insurance for everybody in the country. The other aspect of our plan that is fascinating is that we will not have anybody left in the individual market. Everybody in the individual market will be able to join an association, which is group insurance, which is protected for pre-existing conditions, and also gets you a cheaper price. we will have people in associations that may be, you know, the Farm Bureau, for example, if the Farm Bureau did this nationally, they would have a couple hundred thousand people buying insurance, but one person would negotiate a lower rate for everybody, and they would be in a group insurance policy. Insurance companies would hate it. That’s why they don’t like associations, because we would empower the consumer. But we have a replacement plan, but it’s not a government plan. It’s a free market plan.”

(h/t Grabien)

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