On Friday’s broadcast of C-SPAN’s “Ceasefire,” former Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV) said that he wouldn’t have voted for Obamacare and while there need to be subsidies on the lower end, Republicans are right to support health savings accounts and “on the higher level, you need to have the market start working.”
Manchin said, “People that are getting healthcare for the first time under Obamacare, the working poor, people above the welfare level, they were using the emergency room continuously, or they would claim a worker’s comp…for their healthcare delivery. So, they weren’t regulated to doctor visits and things of this sort, they went whenever they wanted to. Now we bring in healthcare on the lower end. I was not for Obamacare. I wasn’t there then…I would not have voted for it as a Democrat, the way it was presented. There [need] to be guardrails put on it for up to 100, 150 percentile. You’re going to have to subsidize lower-income working people. But on the higher level, you need to have the market start working.”
He continued, “And the Republicans are right. The health savings accounts, those are ways, basically, you make decisions, you own your own 401(k)…you should own your healthcare. You should get rewarded for healthy lifestyles. You should be able to use that money for disasters, catastrophic injuries. The market would drive the prices, more competitive, we don’t shop for this product, the only market in America we don’t shop.”
He further stated, “So, the Republicans are right on that. The Democrats are right where there [need] to be some subsidies on the lower end to help people working, put guardrails on that.”
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