BREAKING: Sheehy Caught on Tape Calling For “Pure Privatization”of the Health Care System
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, December 4, 2023
CONTACT
rehm@mtdems.org
Sheehy’s position would dismantle the ACA and eliminate Medicare
Helena, MT – New reporting from Semafor revealed explosive audio of multimillionaire Tim Sheehy calling for the “pure privatization” of the health care system. His position would repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and eliminate Medicare.
Read more below:
Semafor: Republican Senate frontrunner in Montana calls for returning ‘healthcare to pure privatization’
By Kadia Goba
December 4, 2023
Tim Sheehy, a lead contender for the Republican Senate nomination in Montana, said earlier this year that he wants to privatize the U.S. healthcare system, according to audio obtained by Semafor.
The comments, made at an August meet-and-greet in Glasgow, Mont., were captured on an audio recording obtained by Semafor. Speaking to a group of attendees, Sheehy argued that the Affordable Care Act’s subsidies for insurance coverage and other federal health programs had inflated the cost of medical treatment.
“Our hospitals have been built around federal healthcare subsidies. In my opinion we need to return healthcare to pure privatization,” he said.
He then drew a comparison to the federal student loan system. “Colleges know they can charge whatever they want to charge because student loans are going to pay,” he said. “It’s similar in healthcare, where we’ve got a subsidy system that’s got perverse incentives.”
When asked by an attendee at the event if he would “put all healthcare into the hands of insurance companies” or include “some kind of a subsidy,” Sheehy responded by broadly criticizing the concept of health insurance.
“I mean, healthcare worked before health insurance existed. Each town had a doctor that would drive to your house, take care of you and you’d pay him,” Sheehy said. “And guess what? It worked. It worked when you actually paid a doctor for services provided. And then we started getting into this HMO, insurance, mega-conglomerate structure.”
The comments go further than Sheehy’s past public comments on healthcare. On his website, he blames Obamacare for higher premiums and adds that more government control, “health care has only made things worse“ but stops short of calling for a repeal.
Sheehy’s talk of privatizing the healthcare system is the kind of rhetoric Republicans in D.C. have desperately been trying to disassociate themselves from in recent years.
Republican voters have yet to fall in love with Obamacare, but polling shows the policy has become more popular among both parties over the years. As of May 2023, about 6 in 10 Americans had a favorable view of the healthcare law, according to KFF’s tracking survey.
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