On the same day that the Supreme Court began reviewing President Obama's landmark health-care law, four GOP candidates in the Congressional District 8 special election offered their proposals for how to improve health care.
The Supreme Court justices began the first of three days of oral arguments in preparation to rule on the politically charged question of whether the government can require all Americans to have health insurance by 2014.
The four Republican contenders for Congress in Southern Arizona's special election - Dave Sitton, Martha McSally, Frank Antenori and Jesse Kelly - all agree that Obama's plan should be repealed.
During a candidate debate Monday night at Canyon del Oro High School, hosted by the Pima County Young Republicans, they were asked: How would they give people more health-care choices?
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Here's what each said in his or her allotted time of 90 seconds on that question:
Dave Sitton
If the Supreme Court doesn't strike down Obama's health-care plan, the repeal must be done at the legislative level, because members of the federal bureaucracy should not be deciding who gets what health care, Sitton said.
He said something positive is needed to replace it, and pointed to his campaign's 10-point health-care-reform plan, which is based on information from experienced local doctors.
"We can't simply play games anymore where we simply say what we are against," Sitton said. "We need to say what we are for, what we are prepared to battle to do."
His plan includes securing and reforming Medicare; reforming the tax treatment of health insurance so people can purchase their own insurance and get a tax credit; and allowing people to buy health insurance across state lines, among other things. Free enterprise should be at the center of any plan, he added.
Martha McSally
Reform is needed to make health care affordable and available. People in the United States pay too much for health care, and aren't as healthy as those in dozens of other countries who pay less, she said.
"We are not getting our bang for buck," McSally said.
She said the country needs to return to the doctor-patient relationship; enact tort reform; allow insurance to be bought across state lines; and put caps on malpractice payouts. The country also needs to get out of the "fee for service" culture and focus on preventive health care, she said.
"All those things will bring the cost down so it's more available to people," McSally said. "As soon as the government gets involved, it's only going to mess it up and it's going to get more expensive."
Frank Antenori
He reminded the audience that he's been battling the federal government on health-care overhaul from his position as a state senator, evidenced by his support of Proposition 106, which allowed Arizonans to opt out of the new health-care requirement.
The key to reforming health care is getting government out of it and opening it up to competition, like other types of insurance, Antenori said.
"There is no reason we can't shop across state lines," he said. "There is no reason we can't use an a la carte system to get the kind of the coverage we need."
Not everybody needs the same coverage, Antenori said, pointing out the differences between young and old; men and women; and families and single people.
"There is no reason we have to have this cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all system," Antenori said. "It's called freedom."
Jesse Kelly
The key to health-care reform is to allow businesses to pool together to buy health insurance, Kelly said.
"If five businesses pull together to purchase insurance instead of one business, then the cost goes down," he said. "It's no different than buying any other product; the more you buy, the better the cost."
Secondly, Kelly said, give people the same tax rates that businesses receive for providing themselves health care and allow "individual ownership" of health insurance.
"Not only can you buy and make a plan for whatever you want, it also gives you the freedom to leave your job, to move jobs, to jump careers, because you are not bound to your employer because you need that health insurance," Kelly said.
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Contact reporter Brady McCombs at bmccombs@azstarnet.com or 573-4213.
