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Rick Weiland on Health Care |
A: "The Medicare Choice Act will give all Americans a choice between Medicare, private insurance, or a combination of both." If elected, Weiland pledges to write, introduce, and fight hard to enact a new health care law that will give every American a choice between buying into Medicare, keeping his or her private insurance, or a combination of both. "The Medicare Choice Act, by simply allowing people to choose what they want, will make our entire health care delivery system cheaper, more responsive to the needs of patients and health care providers, and less responsive to the demands of either big money insurance giants."
A campaign adviser said Weiland is framing his push for a public option as essentially support for allowing the public to buy into Medicare, which is popular with seniors, and his opposition to Keystone XL is appealing to farmers & ranchers who know it could hurt their water supply.
A: I really think people feel that their government's no longer on their side. And we'll talk a lot about health care and what's wrong with the Affordable Care Act. I think there needs to be a Medicare choice option, to get people an opportunity if they want to buy into Medicare versus having to buy into private insurance.
Q: What kind of reaction do you get in those communities when you tell them you support ObamaCare and expanding Medicare?
A: What I say is that the Affordable Care Act was co-opted by big insurance companies and big drug companies and we didn't get a public option. What I like are the advancements in health care delivery: covering preexisting conditions, eliminating lifetime caps; and coverage up to 26 years old on the parent's plan. Somebody asked me today, 'Would you repeal ObamaCare?' I would repeal what's not working. I would certainly keep what is working. And what I would add to it is this Medicare choice option.
Rick Weiland will fight with the President to preserve our hard won access to health insurance regardless of pre-existing conditions. He stands with small business and ordinary South Dakota families in our fight to take government back from millionaire political donors and huge special interests.