Republicans always have believed that healthcare is a personal responsibility and Romney made it a state issue. No Republican has ever proposed national healthcare.
Again, you are either severely ignorant or severely dishonest. Richard Nixon proposed national health care:
"COMPREHENSIVE HEALTH INSURANCE PLAN (CHIP)
Early last year, I directed the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare to prepare a new and improved plan for comprehensive health insurance. That plan, as I indicated in my State of the Union message, has been developed and I am presenting it to the Congress today. I urge its enactment as soon as possible.
The plan is organized around seven principles:
First, it offers every American an opportunity to obtain a balanced, comprehensive range of health insurance benefits;
Second, it will cost no American more than he can afford to pay;
Third, it builds on the strength and diversity of our existing public and private systems of health financing and harmonizes them into an overall system;
Fourth, it uses public funds only where needed and requires no new Federal taxes;
Fifth, it would maintain freedom of choice by patients and ensure that doctors work for their patient, not for the Federal Government.
Sixth, it encourages more effective use of our health care resources;
And finally, it is organized so that all parties would have a direct stake in making the system work--consumer, provider, insurer, State governments and the Federal Government."
Full letter to Congress here:
Nixon's Plan For Health Reform, In His Own Words - Kaiser Health News
And second, Obamacare itself is strikingly similar to a health care reform plan proposed by Republicans and written by the conservative Heritage Foundation in the early 90s. That plan included the individual mandate that you maintain is anathema to conservative ideals:
"The second central element-in the Heritage proposal is a two-way commit ment between government and citizen. Under this social contract, the federal government would agree to make it financially possible, through refund able tax benefits or in some cases by providing access to public-sector health programs, for every American family to purchase at least a basic package of medical care, including catastrophic insurance. In return,
government would require, by law every head of household to acquire at least a basic health plan for his or her family.Thus there would be mandated coverage under the Heritage proposal, but the mandate would apply to the family head, who is the appropriate person to shoulder the primary responsibility for the familys health needs, rather than employers, who are not EFFECTS OF THE HERlTAGE.PROPOSAL By no longer restricting tax relief for medical care to employer-provided plans, and by restructuring tax assistance to help those Americans most in need, the Heritage proposal significantly would improve the American health system. Among the most important effects 1)Good health care not dependent on employers. E mployees would be able to acquire health coverage for their families, and obtain government tax help to pay for it, wherever they happen to work. Casual or part-time workers, em ployees of small firms, or dependents of workers those who comprise a major s h are of the uninsured -would receive a refundable tax credit based on health costs compared with income exactly the same form of govern ment assistance to buy health services as Americans working in large firms Thus the Heritage proposal would solve much o f the current uninsurance problem."
Using Tax Credits to Create an Affordable Health System
