Here’s a bit of the transcript from this afternoon’s CPTV\Channel 3 televised debate at Fairfield University between Democrat Dannel Malloy and Republican Tom Foley
Malloy-
“This is a big difference between my opponent and myself. I don’t believe you make health care less expensive by cutting health care. I think you need to root out excess profits. I think you need to limit the profits that people make when they’re providing a service. I think they need to go to electronic record keeping. I think we need to embrace change and new systems. And one thing I’ll never do and my opponent has already done, is propose to allow your employer to issue you a new health policy that wouldn’t cover any mandate, so if you’re a woman and you have a mastectomy, you wouldn’t be guaranteed a 48-hour stay in the hospital, or a mammogram for that matter, or if you had a child with a hearing impairment, he wouldn’t or she wouldn’t get a hearing aid. Or if you’re a gentleman who was told that you might have prostate cancer, you wouldn’t get a screening. Now that would make health care cheaper, but it wouldn’t make it any better.”
Foley:
“Now, Dan you know I have not proposed anything that would remove any health care coverage from anybody in Connecticut who already has it. You need to stick to the truth here. We can reduce health care costs in Connecticut. We spend more, as I’ve said, than any other state. We can improve the services that are provided and lower the cost for the benefit of everyone. Those savings will enable us to provide coverage as I propose to people that currently don’t have coverage here in Connecticut which is a goal that I aspire to as governor.”
Malloy:
“You may have forgotten your health care plan, but I haven’t. And this is what it says: ‘Allow small companies, which have not previously provided health insurance and any company whose health insurance costs exceed a defined percentage of payroll to elect core coverage, a core-needs plan to be set by the insurance commissioner, which is focused on basic care needs and is exempt, and is exempt, let me say it again and is exempt from mandates.’ Those mandates that I just listed and many more.”