Governor Mike Huckabee shares his views on important issues including "Health Care."

• The health care system in this country is irrevocably broken, in part because it is only a "health care" system, not a "health" system.
  
• We don't need universal health care mandated by federal edict.
• We do need to get serious about preventive health care.
• I advocate policies that will encourage the private sector to seek innovative ways to bring down costs.
• I value the states' role as laboratories for new market-based approaches.
• When I'm President, Americans will have more control of their health care options, not less.
• As President, I will work with the private sector, Congress, health care providers, and other concerned parties to lead a complete overhaul of our health care system.
• Our health care system is making our businesses non-competitive in the global economy. It is time to recognize that jobs don't need health care, people do, and move from employer-based to consumer-based health care.
  

The health care system in this country is irrevocably broken, in part because it is only a "health care" system, not a "health" system. We don't need universal health care mandated by federal edict or funded through ever-higher taxes. We do need to get serious about preventive health care instead of chasing more and more dollars to treat chronic disease, which currently gobbles up 80% of our health care costs, and yet is often avoidable. The result is that we'll be able to deliver better care where and when it's needed.

I advocate policies that will encourage the private sector to seek innovative ways to bring down costs and improve the free market for health care services. We have to change a system that happily pays $30,000 for a diabetic to have his foot amputated, but won't pay for the shoes that would save his foot.

We can make health care more affordable by reforming medical liability; adopting electronic record keeping; making health insurance more portable from one job to another; expanding health savings accounts to everyone, not just those with high deductibles; and making health insurance tax deductible for individuals and families as it now is for businesses. Low income families would get tax credits instead of deductions. We don't need all the government controls that would inevitably come with universal health care. When I'm President, Americans will have more control of their health care options, not less.

I also value the states' role as laboratories for new market-based approaches, and I will encourage those efforts. As President I will work with the private sector, Congress, health care providers, and other concerned parties to lead a complete overhaul of our health care system, not more of the same, paid for by Uncle Sam at the expense of hard-working families.

Health care spending is now about $2 trillion a year, which is close to $7,000 for each one of us. It consumes about 17% of our gross domestic product, easily surpassing the few European nations where spending is close to 10% and far higher than any other country in the world. If we reduced our out-of-control health care costs from 17% to 11%, we'd save $700 billion a year, which is about twice our annual national deficit.

Our health care system is making our businesses non-competitive in the global economy. General Motors spends more on health care than it does on steel, $1,500 per car. Starbucks spends more on health care than it does on coffee beans. We have an employer-based system from the 1940's, a system devised not because it was the best way to provide health care, but as a way around World War II wage-and-price controls. Costs have skyrocketed because the party paying for the health care - the employer - and the party using the health care - the employee - are not the same. It is human nature to consume more of something that is essentially free.

Workers complain that their wages are stagnant, but businesses reply that their total compensation costs are rising significantly because they are paying so much more for health care. Health care costs are adversely affecting your paycheck, even if you're healthy. Some Americans are afraid to change jobs or start their own businesses because they're afraid of losing their health insurance. It is time to recognize that jobs don't need health insurance, people do, and to ease the burden on our businesses. Our employer-based system has outlived its usefulness, but the answer is a consumer-based system, not socialized medicine.

Governor Mike Huckabee shares his views on important issues including "Sanctity Of Life."

•  I support and have always supported passage of a constitutional amendment to protect the right to life.  My convictions regarding the sanctity of life have always been
  clear and consistent, without equivocation or wavering.  I believe that Roe v. Wade should be over-turned.
•  I applaud the Supreme Court's recent decision in Gonzales v. Cathcart forbidding the gruesome practice of partial birth abortion. While I am optimistic that we
  are turning the tide in favor of life, we still have many battles ahead of us to protect those who cannot protect themselves, and so it is vital that we elect a pro-life President.
• I first became politically active because of abortion, when I helped pass Arkansas' Unborn Child Amendment, which requires the state to do whatever it legally can to protect life.
• As Governor, I did all I could to protect life.  The many pro-life laws I got through my Democrat legislature are the accomplishments that give me the most pride and personal satisfaction.  To me, life doesn't begin at conception and end at birth.  Every child deserves a quality education, first-rate health care, decent housing in a safe neighborhood, and clean air and drinking water.  Every child deserves the opportunity to discover and use his God-given gifts and talents.
• I am opposed to research on embryonic stem cells.

I support and have always supported passage of a constitutional amendment to protect the right to life.  As President, I will fight for passage of this amendment.  My convictions regarding the sanctity of life have always been clear and consistent, without equivocation or wavering.  I believe that Roe v. Wade should be over-turned. 

I applaud the Supreme Court's recent decision in Gonzales v. Cathcart forbidding the gruesome practice of partial birth abortion. While I am optimistic that we
are turning the tide in favor of life, we still have many battles ahead of us to protect those who cannot protect themselves, and so it is vital that we elect a pro-life President.

No candidate has a stronger record on the sanctity of life than I do.  I have always been actively and aggressively pro-life.  I first became politically active when I helped pass Arkansas' Unborn Child Amendment, which requires the state to do whatever it can to protect life.

As Governor, I used that Amendment to pass pro-life legislation.  The many pro-life laws I got through my Democrat legislature are the accomplishments that give me the most pride and personal satisfaction.  I banned partial birth abortion, I required parental notification, I required that a woman give informed consent before having an abortion, I required that a woman be told her baby will experience pain and be given the option of anesthesia for her baby, I allowed a woman to have her baby and leave the child safely at a hospital, and I made it a crime for an unborn child to be injured or murdered during an attack on his mother.

What I accomplished as Governor proves that there is a lot more that a pro-life President can do than wait for a Supreme Court vacancy, and I will do everything I can to promote a pro-life agenda and pass pro-life legislation.  If I'm saddled with a Democrat Congress, I'll veto any pro-abortion legislation they pass.  I will staff all relevant positions with pro-life appointees.  I will use the Bully Pulpit to change hearts and minds, to move this country from a culture of death to a culture of life.  I have no desire to throw women in jail, I just want us to stop throwing babies in the garbage.

To me, life doesn't begin at conception and end at birth.  Every child deserves a quality education, first-rate health care, decent housing in a safe neighborhood, and clean air and drinking water.  Every child deserves the opportunity to discover and use his God-given gifts and talents.  

With respect to stem cells, I am opposed to research on embryonic stem cells.