Washed-up professional presidential candidate Rick Santorum represented the Republican viewpoint in a CNN roundtable discussion on health care Sunday. And he let it all hang out.
CNN contributor Rick Santorum suggested on Sunday that it was a mistake to guarantee health care coverage for people with preexisting conditions because “millions” of them were scamming insurance companies. […]
“Pre-existing conditions, though it’s very popular,” the former GOP senator opined, “what the reality is today that thousands, maybe approaching millions of Americans, are paying nine months for insurance. Why? Because you pay for your insurance for nine months, there’s a provision in Obamacare that says you can’t be thrown off your plan for three months.”
“So, you stop paying in September until the end of the year,” he continued. “You have a right to guaranteed [coverage for] pre-existing conditions. You can buy a new plan in January. So people are paying nine months for 12 months of care. And it’s happening more and more and more as people get the gig.”
Shockingly, Santorum had no evidence to back this theory up. But he's a Republican. He doesn't need facts. And this isn't a new position from him.
Back in 2011, he argued that it was right for health insurers to discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions. That includes both refusing to insure them and making them pay a lot more for insurance. His own child, he said then, had a health condition, and it was okay by him that he had to pay more. "She’s going to be very expensive to the insurance company and, you know, that cost is passed along to us … I'm okay with that." His daughter, of course, was too young to argue that maybe when she's no longer a child and is kicked off his plan, maybe she should have a chance to be covered.
The thing is, Santorum isn't running for anything at the moment. He has the ability to voice what all Republicans are thinking: health insurance is not a right. If you are a person that matters to society, as far as they're concerned, you can afford health insurance and thus deserve it. Everyone else just doesn't matter. That's the essence of this eight-year fight.