coverage in those exchanges. within the different states. third thing he proposed was the individual mandate. you would end up with insurance pools that health insurance companies could not begin to cover. it would be unworkable. he proposed, as well, employer mandates and proposed, as well, the notion that people shouldn t lose their coverage because of pre-existing conditions. those are not democrat ideas. those were proposed by republican leadership, actually, in the congress at the time. and when governor romney developed his own plan in massachusetts a decade or so later, he borrowed liberally from those ideas. when the institute of what i and
people that didn t have coverage and now have it before, and a rate of growth of our health care premiums are far lower than it would have been, but for the act. we ll debate that layer. the question is, what do we what s coming along? we ve heard you say several times the principles that the president has articulated as to what would be in place of the affordable care act. i like to just drill down a little bit on the central health benefits. we ve talked about preventative care now being available. we know that we have now mental health and addiction services that are available. we also know we have oral health, pediatric dental that s now available, which is particularly important in my state, because of the tragic loss in 2007. can you ensure us that as you look at what will be the health care system moving forward, that you re prepared to make sure that americans have quality insurance coverage, to deal with issues such as preventative
coverage under the law. when you move to a block grant, you remove the right and you make it a possibility subject to whatever funding there is going to be. do you recognize that in doing so you risk the potential of millions of americans who presently enjoy health care coverage through medicaid no longer having that right? i think that it s important to appreciate that no system that the president has supported or that i have supported would leave anybody without the opportunity to gain coverage. that s not my question, so let me reiterate my question. medicaid, under the law as it exists today, is a right, is that not the case? it is an entitlement program. as an entitlement, doesn t that mean you have the right if you meet the criteria that you are entitled to the services question might that is correct. when you move to a block grant do you still have the
looking at the financial health of the insurance companies in this country. and it sounds like they have seemed to have sort of figured it out. because the health insurance companies has begun to stabilize. your reaction to this, please? as i mentioned, either in my opening or in response to questions, the principles of health care that all of us hold deal, affordability and accessible and choices for patients, i think are the things that we all embrace. the next step, how we get to accomplish and meet those goals and those principles, is where it takes work together to do so. the program that you outlined has much merit, whether it s making certain that individuals with pre-existing illness and disease are able to access coverage, whether it s the pooling mechanisms, which i ve actively and aggressively
getting coverage in those exchanges. third thing he proposed was the notion that there should be an individual mandate, they wanted to make sure people got covered and he realized if they didn t mandate coverage, then you would end up with insurance pools that helped insurance companies health insurance companies could not begin to cover, it would just be unworkable. he proposed as well employer mandates, and he proposed, as well, the notion that people shouldn t lose their coverage because of pre-existing conditions. those are not democrat ideas, those were proposed by republican leadership, actually. in the congress at the time. and when governor romney developed his own plan in massachusetts, a decade or so later, he borrowed literally from those ideas. when he instituted, as you may