Ron DeSantis Nonetheless Cannot Defend His File On Well being Care

You would possibly suppose that two months could be sufficient time for Gov. Ron DeSantis to suppose up a solution to an apparent, direct and extremely related query about his file on well being care in Florida.

Close to the tip of Wednesday night time’s Republican presidential debate ― held in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and broadcast on NewsNation ― moderator Elizabeth Vargas identified that “Florida has more uninsured people than almost any other state.”

Provided that file, Vargas mentioned, why ought to voters belief DeSantis on well being care?

The query was practically an identical to 1 DeSantis fielded on the Republican debate in late September, when Fox Information host Stuart Varney cited the identical figures and requested, “Can Americans trust you on this?”

The query was essential as a result of Florida actually does have extra uninsured residents than nearly some other state. And the only greatest motive is that it’s amongst a handful of Republican-run, largely southern states which have refused to make use of funding from the Reasonably priced Care Act ― aka “Obamacare” ― to broaden Medicaid.

DeSantis is among the many Florida Republicans who’ve opposed enlargement.

However as an alternative of defending that place and, extra usually, his file on well being care, DeSantis in September gave a brief monologue about inflation and the rising value of client items, adopted by a bland, obscure assertion: “We have big pharma, big insurance, and big government and we need to tackle that and have more power for the people and the doctor-patient relationship.”

If something, the query about well being care has grow to be much more essential since then, as a result of a full-scale repeal of Obamacare is abruptly a part of the political dialog once more.

In late November, former president and present GOP front-runner Donald Trump vowed ― as he did so many instances throughout his first marketing campaign after which his presidency ― to interchange Obamacare with one thing higher. DeSantis went on to make the same promise.

“Obamacare hasn’t worked,” DeSantis mentioned on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “We are going to replace and supersede with a better plan.”

DeSantis admitted that, like Trump, he doesn’t even have a plan but. He mentioned he would introduce one, “probably” within the spring. Republicans have been making ― and never fulfilling ― such guarantees since Obamacare first grew to become regulation.

Perhaps DeSantis will shock all people by truly producing an in depth plan that basically presents a greater various to the Reasonably priced Care Act ― though, to be clear, he’d first should shock all people by getting sufficient votes to stay a viable presidential candidate previous the primary few contests.

For now, voters making an attempt to evaluate whether or not he can ship on well being care should depend on what he’s performed previously, which suggests wanting carefully at his file in Florida ― the one Vargas was asking about. And on Wednesday, as in September, DeSantis didn’t have a lot to say.

After acknowledging that Florida hadn’t expanded Medicaid, he implied that was the appropriate choice as a result of the states that had accepted and applied enlargement have been “struggling financially.”

He didn’t attempt to again up the declare and he most likely couldn’t: Most states are working surpluses nowadays, and better spending on Medicaid, most of which the feds choose up anyway, can imply decrease spending on different packages.

Extra essential, DeSantis by no means defined how blocking Medicaid would assist folks get well being care when, by all accounts, no enlargement means extra folks with out insurance coverage ― in different phrases, precisely the issue Vargas (like Varney earlier than her) was highlighting.

DeSantis did comply with up that assertion with one other set of platitudes, together with a promise “to hold the pharmaceuticals accountable.”

It was one more instance of Republican leaders not having concrete concepts on well being care ― though on this case, it was a very related one as a result of there’s any individual working in 2024 who truly has taken motion to rein within the drug business.

That any individual is President Joe Biden, who labored with Democrats to enact a sequence of initiatives designed to convey down the worth of pharmaceuticals.

Among the many reforms are a cap on insulin costs for Medicare beneficiaries that the personal sector has since prolonged to non-elderly People with personal insurance coverage, in addition to penalties on drugmakers who elevate costs sooner than inflation. After which there’s a provision underneath which the federal authorities will, for the primary time, negotiate the worth of some high-cost medication in Medicare.

These are all incremental steps and, just like the Reasonably priced Care Act, they won’t immediately make well being care extra inexpensive for the hundreds of thousands who wrestle with medical payments at this time. However they may assist.

If Republicans wish to show they will do extra, they’ll should defend their information and provide concrete options for the longer term ― two duties that, not less than for DeSantis, appear to be an ongoing problem.