MANCHESTER, N.H. — Donald Trump says his healthcare plan would “take care of dying people in the streets” if he were president.
During the Saturday Republican debate in at St. Anselm College, moderator Mary Katharine Ham asked Trump about his prior support for single-payer healthcare:
“In the Democratic primary, Hillary Clinton has criticized Bernie Sanders’ plan for single payer government health care, noting it would require big, across the board tax increases for Americans. In doing so, she’s doubling down on Obamacare, despite its persistent unpopularity.”
She asked, “Mr. Trump, you have said you want to appeal Obamacare. You have also said, quote, “Everybody’s got to be covered,” adding, quote, “The government’s going to pay for it.” Are you closer to Bernie Sanders’ vision for health care than Hillary Clinton’s?
Trump replied, “I don’t think I am. I think I’m closer to common sense. We are going to repeal Obamacare.”
He explained, “We’re going to repeal Obamacare. We are going to replace Obamacare with something so much better. And there are so many examples of it. And I will tell you, part of the reason we have some people laughing, because you have insurance people that take care of everybody up here.”
“I am self-funded. The only one they’re not taking care of is me. We have our lines around each state. The insurance companies are getting rich on Obamacare. The insurance companies are getting rich on health care and health services and everything having to do with health. We are going to end that,” the New York billionaire said. “We’re going to take out the artificial boundaries, the artificial lines. We’re going to get a plan where people compete, free enterprise. They compete. So much better.”
Trump concluded, “In addition to that, you have the health care savings plans, which are excellent. What I do say is, there will be a certain number of people that will be on the street dying and as a Republican, I don’t want that to happen. We’re going to take care of people that are dying on the street, because there will be a group of people that are not going to be able to even think in terms of private or anything else and we’re going to take care of those people.”