Barbara Kirkmeyer on Health Care

Let Medicaid recipients buy into private insurance market

• Expand rural health care accessibility
• Get government and insurance companies out of the middle of the doctor-patient relationship.
• Allow Medicaid beneficiaries to use their benefits to "buy into" the private insurance market.
• Ensure price transparency, so consumers and patients know the cost of any treatment or procedure in advance.

Market-based solutions for health care, plus Medicaid

A: Disagree.

Q: How would you promote healthcare coverage that is adequate, affordable and accessible for all?

A: I will promote market-based solutions for health care. Insurance should be portable, so one can easily take it from job to job, we need to reduce the number of mandates on insurance policies, and we need medical malpractice reform, to minimize defensive medicine. A safety net (Medicaid) is a necessity, but we should measure its success by how few need it, not by how many are on it.