The presidential election is drawing closer, and the two contenders — Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton — have both made headlines over their past and current convictions.
Mr. Trump has vowed to repeal and replace President Obama's Affordable Care Act, and the Republican nominee has not shied away from voicing his opinion about the turbulent healthcare landscape.
Here are eight memorable healthcare quotes Mr. Trump has said over the years:
1. At an American Airlines Center in Dallas last year, Mr. Trump said, "Obamacare. We're going to repeal it, we're going to replace it, get something great. Repeal it, replace it, get something great!"
2. During his June 2015 presidential announcement speech, Mr. Trump said, "But Obamacare kicks in in 2016. Really big league. It is going to be amazingly destructive. Doctors are quitting. I have a friend who's a doctor, and he said to me the other day, 'Donald, I never saw anything like it. I have more accountants than I have nurses.' It's a disaster. My patients are beside themselves. They had a plan that was good. They have no plan now."
3. In September 2014, Mr. Trump tweeted, "I'm not against vaccinations for your children, I'm against them in one massive dose. Spread them out over a period of time & autism will drop!"
4. Mr. Trump told The Hill the federal government should not play a huge role in healthcare regulation. He said, "The only way the government should be involved, they have to make sure those companies are financially strong, so that if they have catastrophic events or they have a miscalculation, they have plenty of money. Other than that, it's private."
5. In a 1999 interview with Larry King Live, Mr. Trump took a different stance, saying, "If you can't take care of your sick in the country, forget it, it's all over. I mean, it's no good. So I'm very liberal when it comes to healthcare. I believe in universal healthcare. I believe in whatever it takes to make people well and better."
6. In an interview on "60 Minutes," Scott Pelley asked Mr. Trump about his plans to fix the healthcare system.
"There's many different ways, by the way. Everybody's got to be covered. This is an un-Republican thing for me to say because a lot of times they say, 'No, no, the lower 25 percent that can't afford private'… I am going to take care of everybody. I don't care if it costs me votes or not. Everybody's going to be taken care of much better than they're taken care of now."
7. When Mr. Pelley asked Mr. Trump how his health law would care for the uninsured, Mr. Trump said, "the government's gonna pay for it. But we're going to save so much money on the other side. But for the most it's going to be a private plan and people are going to be able to go out and negotiate great plans with lots of different competition with lots of competitors with great companies and they can have their doctors, they can have plans, they can have everything."
8. At a Republican rally in New Hampshire in February, Mr. Trump said negotiating with pharmaceutical companies could reap huge savings, according to Fortune.
The candidate said, "Because the drug companies have an unbelievable lobby. And these guys that run for office, that are on my left and right and plenty of others, they're all taken care of by the drug companies. And they're never going to put out competitive bidding. So I said to myself wow, let me do some numbers. If we competitively bid, drugs in the United States, we can save as much as $300 billion a year."
For comments and/or questions, please contact Laura Dyrda at ldyrda@beckershealthcare.com or Mary Rechtoris at mrechtoris@beckershealthcare.com.
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