Obama, opposing his 2010 plan in 2008: "In order for you to force people to get health insurance, you've got to have a very harsh penalty"

Barack Obama, on Feb. 21, 2008 in a CNN-sponsored Democrat presidential primary debate in Austin, arguing why Hillary Clinton's support for the individual health insurance mandate disqualified her as an acceptable presidential candidate:

"Number one, understand that when Senator Clinton says a mandate, it's not a mandate on government to provide health insurance, it's a mandate on individuals to purchase it. And Senator Clinton is right; we have to find out what works.

Now, Massachusetts has a mandate right now. They have exempted 20 percent of the uninsured because they have concluded that that 20 percent can't afford it.

In some cases, there are people who are paying fines and still can't afford it, so now they're worse off than they were. They don't have health insurance and they're paying a fine. (APPLAUSE)

In order for you to force people to get health insurance, you've got to have a very harsh penalty.

(Later in the debate.) We've got a philosophical difference, which we've debated repeatedly, and that is that Senator Clinton believes the only way to achieve universal health care is to force everybody to purchase it."


http://DonnyFerguson.blogspot.com

No comments:

Post a Comment