Seven candidates took the stage Saturday evening in the eighth Republican debate of the election cycle.
Participants included New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, MD, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), businessman Donald Trump, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
Here is what the candidates said about the top healthcare issues.
1. Sen. Cruz wants to replace the Affordable Care Act with expanded health savings accounts. "We'll expand health savings accounts; and we will de-link health insurance from employment so that you don't lose your health insurance when you lose your job, and that way health insurance can be personal, portable and affordable and we keep government from getting in between us and our doctors," Sen. Cruz said.
2. Dr. Carson also touched on the health savings accounts he outlines in his healthcare reform plan. "Everybody gets a health empowerment account the day they are born, they keep it until they die. They can pass it on. We pay for it with the same dollars that we pay for traditional healthcare with, recognizing that we spend twice as much as many countries per capita on healthcare and don't have as much access," he said, adding, "We give people the ability to shift money within their health empowerment account so that each family basically becomes its own insurance company without a middleman; that saves you a awful lot of money."
3. Sen. Cruz said he supports formation of interstate health plans.
"We'll allow people to purchase health insurance across state lines that will drive down prices and expand the availability of low cost catastrophic insurance," he said.
4. Mr. Bush underscored the importance of Medicaid for those in poverty and supporting shifting more power to the states to drive healthcare reform.
"One other thing that I think we ought to do, along with repealing Obamacare, we need to shift all of this power of healthcare, which is the most egregious form of federal power that is suppressing wages and incomes, and allow governors to have the Medicaid plans so that they can create 21st century Medicaid insurance for people that are stuck in poverty," he said. "There's so much that can be done, but I don't trust Washington to do it. I trust the state capitals to be the place — to be the source of innovation and reform in this country.
5. Gov. Christie, who previously ordered a nurse who landed at the airport in Newark, N.J., to be detained and quarantined during the Ebola outbreak, said he would do it all over again and quarantine travelers from South America for Zika.
"You bet I would," Gov. Christie said. "We did it because she was showing symptoms, and the fact is that's the way we should make these decisions. You make these decisions based upon the symptoms, the medicine, and the law. We quarantined her, she turned out to test negative ultimately after 48 hours, and we released her back to the State of Maine."
6. Dr. Carson agreed to quarantining, within reason, but said the national response is paramount. "Do we quarantine people? If we have evidence that they are infected, and that there is evidence that that infection can spread by something that they're doing, yes. But, just willy-nilly going out and quarantining a bunch of people because they've been to Brazil, I don't believe that that's going to work," Dr. Carson said. "This is where we need rapid response. We need a rapid response for Ebola; we need rapid response for Zika; there will be other things that will come up. These are the kinds of things that the NIH, the CDC, can be very effective in. We need to give the appropriate support for those kind of things."
7. Mr. Bush and Gov. Kasich agreed veterans should be able to receive healthcare anywhere.
"A veterans card to be able to go to a private provider will enhance the quality of the service inside the Department of Veterans Affairs. We need career civil service reform. Only three people were fired after waiting lists were dropped where veterans didn't get care and people died. It is outrageous," Mr. Bush said. Gov. Kasich echoed his sentiments, "Clearly, when a veteran comes home, they should get healthcare anywhere they want to go."
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