McFadden: Repeal Affordable Care Act in favor of state-based exchanges

U.S. Senate candidate Mike McFadden on Friday laid out a proposal to do away with the Affordable Care Act in favor of optional state exchanges with the opportunity to buy insurance across borders.

The proposal is part of a six-page detailed outline by McFadden, a Republican businessman who is challenging U.S. Sen. Al Franken. McFadden has long advocated for repealing the ACA.

"I fundamentally believe that healthcare should not be done at the federal level, but should be state-based and market-centered," McFadden told reporters Friday. "I think if it continues to be run and administered at the federal level, it will ultimately look like the (Veterans Administration) and that's not acceptable and that's not what Minnesotans want."

McFadden's proposed system includes a six-point plan to lower costs by expanding Health Savings Accounts, increasing price transparency for medical procedures, allow the pooling of small businesses to procure the same benefits as larger corporations, allowing the purchase of insurance across state lines, and reforming both healthcare tax laws and the tort system.

McFadden said that individual states should be able to decide whether they want to issue individual mandates to purchase health insurance.

"If Minnesota wants to have a mandate or Massachusetts wants to have a mandate, then that's their decision." He said. "When I say that states are laboratories for experiments, I want them to experiment. You run into a fundamental problem with a program that's this large, and covers 1/6th of the economy."

McFadden maintained that last week's pullout of PreferredOne, the chief provider in MNsure, is not the fault of the state's health care exchange, is proof that large patient pools are not effective.