Last week, Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO), who is running for the Senate, visited with health care professionals in Springfield, MO to hear their take on health care reform. On Friday, KSPR, an ABC affiliate in Missouri, aired footage from the meeting, capturing Blunt saying that unlike children, adults shouldn’t be protected from being discriminated against for insurance because of pre-existing conditions:
BLUNT: Access for kids who have pre-existing conditions, who would be against that? But access for adults, who have done nothing to take care of themselves, who actually will have as I’ve just described every incentive not to get insurance until the day that you know that you’re going to have medical expenses, that’s, that’s a very different kind of story.
Watch it:
In its report, KSPR notes that “Blunt says his plan offers protections for pre-existing conditions, but a check of his website shows his proposal would not stop insurance companies from denying coverage for people with pre-existing conditions.” This isn’t the first far-right health care position Blunt has taken. In July 2009, he suggested that the “government should have never” started Medicare and Medicaid.