WSIL3
October 29, 2009
 
CAPE GIRARDEAU-Former Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean and former republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich were in our region Wednesday night debating healthcare.
 
Dean supports the public option and explains what he thinks an ideal one would be.
 
"An option that allows people to sign up for a program like Medicare, which guarantees you'll have insurance whenever you travel, guarantees you can't be turned away from an insurer, and follows you whether you have a job or don't and costs the same by everyone who signs up for it."
 
Gingrich believes states will be unfairly burdened with any kind of reform on the table now.
 
"Governor Schwarzenegger estimates the cost to California to be as much as $8 billion a year in additional unfunded federal mandates. I don't think that's a solution. I think that's a shell game where the politicians in Washington pretend they're solving something by making the politicians back home have even greater problems."
 
Both men did agree that some kind of change needs to be made.

To learn more about Newt's ideas on health care reform, click here...