Cain Offers Up His Views On Health Policy

In a short policy speech delivered on Capitol Hill, GOP presidential hopeful Herman Cain expressed his support for repealing the 2010 health law and replacing it with market-based reforms.

The Wall Street Journal's Washington Wire: Herman Cain Answers Questions – On Health Insurance
After the GOP presidential candidate finished a speech to Republican lawmakers on health care policy, he ignored the questions reporters shouted at him about sexual harassment allegations. He did answer questions about his own insurance plan, saying that he was paying "expensive" premiums to keep coverage he had had from his previous job as a talk show host through the COBRA system (Radnofsky, 11/2).

Los Angeles Times: Herman Cain Dodges Scandal Questions On Capitol Hill
Herman Cain came to Capitol Hill to address the Congressional Health Care Caucus at a House office building Wednesday, but it was clear from the media scrum inside the room and outside in the hallway that health policy was the last thing on anyone's mind. … Cain gave a short speech on health care policy, citing, as has in the past, his own experience as a cancer survivor as an argument against the Democratic health care reform law. He said he would plan to sign a bill repealing the plan on March 23, 2013, his son's birthday. "I'm going to unpass it on my son's birthday," he pledged (Oliphant and Hennessey, 11/2).

Kaiser Health News: Capsules: Price (Bill) Is Right For Cain's Health Fix
Following an immediate repeal of the health law, Herman Cain as president would sign a replacement bill designed to reduce costs and increase coverage with less government involvement. The measure embraced by Cain on Wednesday was first offered in 2009 by Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., and was reintroduced this September. It has 19 House Republican cosponsors (Werber Serafini, 11/2).

Kaiser Health News (Video): Herman Cain On Health Reform: 'I Believe In The Free Market System'
Kaiser Health News offers this collection of video excerpts from the Republican presidential candidate's address to the Congressional Health Care Caucus, where he outlined his plans for health policy (11/2).

The Hill: Cain Would Repeal Health Care Reform Law, Roll Back Employer-Based Coverage
If presidential hopeful Herman Cain has his way, he'll be repealing health care reform three years to the day after President Obama signed it. Cain said Wednesday that as president, he would hope to sign a repeal law on March 23, 2013. Obama signed the health care law on March 23, 2010. "This legislation has truly backfired," Cain said during an appearance at the Congressional Health Care Caucus. He also spoke earlier in the day to a group of conservative doctors (Baker, 11/2).

National Journal: Cain Draws Crowd At Health Caucus Meeting
Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain brought a packed house on Wednesday to the typically one-man show known as the [Congressional] Health Care Caucus. The caucus, run by Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas, usually holds small events showcasing Republican viewpoints on health policy. But this time Burgess's caucus got wrapped in the media circus that is Herman Cain. Coming off several days of questions about sexual harassment claims, Cain tried to focus on his health policy platform, which was very general and stuck to Republican talking points on having "open-market" reforms (McCarthy, 11/2).

Politico: Cain Calls For Health Reform Repeal, 'Free-Market' Replacement
In a speech to the GOP Congressional Health Care Caucus, Cain said if he had the right numbers in Congress, he would sign legislation repealing health care reform on March 23, 2013 — three years after it was signed into law. A bill by Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), H.R. 3400, would be the starting point for replacement legislation, he said. In a half-hour session on health policy — in which the embattled Cain fielded questions from members of Congress, but not the media — Cain said he supported block-granting Medicaid and reducing the Medicare bureaucracy. He also endorsed allowing the sale of insurance across state lines, as well as tort reform (Millman, 11/2).

ABC: Cain Presents Health Care Views At Congressional Health Caucus
Herman Cain, GOP presidential candidate, outlined three problems with health care that he would like to see fixed, starting with the immediate repeal of President Obama's health care plan. "I am 100 percent behind and will sign legislation as it hits my desk to appeal Obamacare in its entirety," Cain said. "We are now just beginning to see some of the unintended consequences of this bad legislation." Cain, who has been in Washington all week, presented his views to the Congressional Health Care Caucus today as part of its Thought Leaders Series (Parkinson, 11/2).

In other campaign news, Michele Bachmann appeared during a Wednesday radio show in Iowa to support repealing Medicare and other federal assistance programs. Meanwhile, a Democratic PAC takes aim at GOP candidate Mitt Romney as it defends the health law.

Des Moines Register: Michele Bachmann Calls For Repeal Of Great Society; Compares Greece To A Petulant Teenager
In an appearance this morning on Jan Mickelson's Des Moines-based radio show, Michele Bachmann appeared to call for the repeal of Medicare, federal the health-care service for the elderly, and other large federal welfare programs. Bachmann, a Republican presidential candidate, called the welfare programs enacted in the mid-1960s under the "Great Society" — which include Medicare, Medicaid, and expansions to Social Security and the federal food stamp program — a "multi-trillion-dollar experiment and failure" (Noble, 11/2).

The Hill: Democratic Super PAC Embraces Obama Health Law
Democrats are defending President Obama's health care law as they attack Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney. Some strategists have predicted that Obama will try to avoid talking about health care during the 2012 campaign. And the latest Kaiser Family Foundation tracking poll found a sharp decline in Democrats' support for the law, raising questions about its value even with the Democratic base (Baker, 11/2).