Carly Fiorina made a reference to her battle with breast cancer as she argued for ditching Obamacare at the Republican debate Tuesday night.
“I’m a cancer survivor. I understand you cannot allow families to go bankrupt if they truly need help, but I also understand Obamacare isn’t helping anyone,” Fiorina said at the debate hosted by Fox Business Network.
Like the other Republicans vying for the presidential nomination, Fiorina has vowed to try to repeal the Affordable Care Act if elected. But she gave her best picture yet of what she would replace it with, saying states should be encouraged to manage high-risk pools for those with pre-existing conditions and insurers should be required to be more transparent about their finances.
The government should require all insurers to publish their prices, costs and other consumer-related information, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO told the moderators.
“As patients, we don’t know what we’re buying,” she said.
Among other provisions in President Obama’s healthcare law, Fiorina said she would get rid of its requirement for employers to offer coverage to workers, arguing that mandate is hurting small businesses.
She also decried the relationship between government regulators and insurers, saying negotiations between the two parties end up undermining consumers and market forces. She noted the healthcare law was only passed by Congress after the biggest industry players, including insurers, medical providers and drugmakers, agreed to the measure as a whole.
“It’s crony capitalism at its worst,” Fiorina said. “Who wrote this bill? Drug companies, insurance companies.”
