There is a fight brewing between President Donald Trump and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) regarding health care. Trump is lobbying to add more mandates and giveaways to the Senate bill while Paul is standing firmly behind his limited government principles.
“We have estimated that it may have more subsidies than Obamacare,” Paul said about the health care bill currently being pushed by the President and Senate GOP leadership in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News.
“It creates a new entitlement program that gives out over $100 billion to insurance companies, and that’s not why I joined the Republican party and not why I ran for office to vote for more entitlement programs,” Paul said.
In Paul’s ideal world, health care would be determined through the marketplace and consumers would be the prime benefactors. Although that is not tenable in the current bureaucratic morass, Paul wants Republican legislators to work toward free market goals rather than strengthening the failed status quo.
“What I’d like to do is legalize inexpensive insurance, and you should be able to get insurance for $1 a day. I mean, you really should,” Paul said during an MSNBC interview. “The insurance companies make all the money — all of this is predicated upon still propping up the insurance companies.”
Paul thinks that this can be achieved beginning with a full repeal of Obamacare. Although it may cause temporary pain, it is the only way to repair the broken system. From there, consumers would be empowered to choose their own health care providers. He points to Lasik eye surgery as an example of how the market can innovate while driving prices continuously downward for consumers.
This future may be a long way off given the attitudes of the President and Senate GOP leadership, but Paul has rallied three of his colleagues– Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT), Ron Johnson (R-WI), and Ted Cruz (R-TX)– to join him in his hardball effort to salvage the flawed legislation.
“I think it depends on how serious the Senate leadership is about negotiating,” Paul said. “If they’re willing to negotiate with the four of us, we could find some compromise but we will have to see. I think we will find that out.”
