Focus on the Issues Series: Gingrich on health care
Newt Gingrich’s stance on healthcare can be summed up in two words: Patient Power. The candidate’s plan describes a from-the-ground up approach that combats what the campaign’s official website, calls the “unconstitutional individual mandate” of President Barack Obama. According to the site, the “Patient Power” plan is based around the four main principles of cost, quality, competition and coverage and will “save lives and save money”:
1. Cost: Gingrich hopes to clean up the health care system as a whole by eradicating “junk lawsuits” that spike medical care costs and creating a 100% electronic system, decreasing healthcare fraud and thus spending by a supposed $200 billion a year. He believes that Health Savings Accounts, which are individually-owned coverage plans exempt from federal income tax, should be available free of charge to all workers as an alternative to their employer coverage.
2. Quality: He aims to reform the Food and Drug Administration to more efficiently develop medical advances, and as a long term goal aims to increase disease research. The campaign cites that “more brain science research could lead to Alzheimer’s Disease cures and treatments that could save the federal government over $20 trillion over the next 40 years”.
3. Competition: Americans will have the choice to take a generous tax credit or to deduct a partial value of their insurance, and will be able to purchase insurance across state lines. Medicare and Medicaid’s reimbursement models will be revamped in a way that awards quality care and creates incentives to deliver the best care at the lowest costs.
4. Coverage: Block grants will be doled out to individual states, allowing them increased freedom to adapt their programs to their residents’ needs. They'll then be able to create high risk pools to help cover the uninsured who are too sick to buy health insurance. Gingrich believes that since states will have smoother and more profitable health care systems, and increased resources, lower income families and those in need would be able to acquire care.
As Thomas Finn, a Gingrich campaign organizer and volunteer at the campaign’s Arizona headquarters, says:
“Repealing Obamacare is an absolute must as it creates layers of regulations, taxes and bureaucracies. Newt's plan will importantly save lives, save money and help propel our economy.”
The campaign believes that the “Patient Power” plan will increase the personal attention each American receives, lower their costs through competition, and all the while allow enough breathing room and excess profits for the uninsured to receive assistance and coverage.
Samantha Glavin is a Spring 2012 Paste BN College Correspondent. Learn more about her here.
This story originally appeared on the Paste BN College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.