President-elect Donald Trump's promise that there will be "insurance for everybody" means he wants to open access to affordable healthcare across state lines, Rep. Marsha Blackburn, a member of his transition team, said Monday.
"Insurance for everybody does not mean that you have to have single payer or government control," the Tennessee Republican told Fox News' "America's Newsroom" program.
"We've tried that. We know it doesn't work. Let's go back to the patient-centered private sector model and let's look at how we get the costs down."
In addition, she said that when states look at Medicaid delivery, it's also important to "look at health savings accounts and give individuals that ownership, and allow them to take the responsibility for their healthcare and there is a way to do this."
It's also important to make sure that Medicaid and some of the plans offered through Obamacare exchanges pay doctors enough to deliver their services, said Blackburn, "so that's another component that needs to be on the table and needs to be corrected."
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has said Democrats won't cover reforms that don't cover as many people as are covered under the Affordable Care act or that move the healthcare system backward, and Blackburn said those comments were "childish" as they don't do a service to his office.
"Go in and look at the 8 to 9 million in the Obamacare exchanges, and only 2 million of those buy that product without a subsidy," said Blackburn.
"That leaves you the balance buying the product only with a subsidy. You have a product too expensive to afford and too expensive to use. So that is why there has to be other options."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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