GOP Congressional Candidate Davis Unveils Health Care Plan

Congressional candidate Rodney Davis says he’ll work to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and replace it with a plan to that keeps the doctor-patient relationship in place.

The 13th District Republican from Taylorville announced his own strategy for health care Monday.  He says the market-based approach will give individuals control of their insurance, and portability of their plan.

Under what Davis calls a ‘common sense, market-based approach’, he says nothing will change for current Medicare recipients.

“But we also have to look at the solvency of Medicare, and the fact that our kindergartener entering school this year – by the time he or she graduates from high school, Medicare will be insolvent," he said.  "So we have to make some decisions to ensure that we have a Medicare system that many seniors are happy with now.  Make sure that it’s there for generations to come.”

Davis says he also wants to reign in the cost of liability insurance, noting the ‘judicial hellhole’ of Madison County falls in the 13th District.

“Medical malpractice suits where doctors then begin practicing defensive medicine, which adds to the cost of delivery of health care and adds to the overall cost of getting access to health care," he said.  "Common sense tort reform needs to be part of any health care delivery system. I find it somewhat offense that it wasn’t addressed at all in Obamacare.”

Davis says he’ll also advocate for more rural community health centers, giving uninsured people access to primary care physicians outside emergency rooms. Davis spoke in a conference call Monday morning.

Democratic opponent and Bloomington physician David Gill ripped the Davis plan in a press release.

"Rodney Davis' rollout of a supposed 'market-based' health plan is little more than a payback for his insurance company sponsors," he said.  "Clearly, when Aetna Insurance paid for a barrage of false and deceptive ads against me, they extracted a promise from Davis.  The promise is Davis' support for a return to the bad old days, when health insurers could freely deny coverage and impose lifetime caps.  Those so-called 'market-based' tactics insure only one thing - the death of patients."

Gill campaign manager Tom Alte says Davis wants to put health insurance profits ahead of patient care.

Davis and Gill face independent candidate John Hartman in the November 6th election.