Video: Governor Doug Burgum Talks Obamcare and Corporate Tax Cuts on Fox Business

This Fox Business segment featuring Governor Doug Burgum actually broadcast back on Monday, but I just got around to watching it and thought it was pretty interesting.

As Republicans in Washington D.C. grapple with how to unravel Obamacare, and replace it with something new, Burgum was asked which parts of the law he’d like to keep.

His answer? He wants to continue allowing young people up to age 26 to stay on their parent’s insurance plans and he wants to continue to mandate insurance companies not deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.

These are things President Donald Trump is backing as well, and they’re a pretty big departure from the traditional Republican stance on health insurance policy. Burgum noted that “those things don’t come free” and that Obamacare failed because it isn’t “actuarially sound,” and he’s right.

[mks_pullquote align=”right” width=”300″ size=”24″ bg_color=”#ffffff” txt_color=”#000000″]You cannot mandate that insurance companies cover “children” well into early adulthood on their parent’s insurance plans without expecting insurance companies to raise their premiums. You cannot allow people with pre-existing conditions to sign up for an insurance policy whenever they want without an mandate to buy insurance.[/mks_pullquote]

You cannot mandate that insurance companies cover “children” well into early adulthood on their parent’s insurance plans without expecting insurance companies to raise their premiums. You cannot allow people with pre-existing conditions to sign up for an insurance policy whenever they want without an mandate to buy insurance.

Otherwise, without a legal mandate forcing people to buy insurance, nobody would pay for it until they got sick.

Later in the interview Burgum decried “all the regulation and all the mandates” which have made health insurance expensive, but what are these things Burgum says he likes if not mandates?

I get that Republicans are bending to politics on this issue – Burgum is right that Americans like these provisions of Obamacare – but a policy’s popularity is not necessarily a sign of its efficacy.

Burgum also talked about corporate tax rates. He was asked about whether the American government can really force companies to come back to America.

“We don’t force them, we incent them,” Burgum said in response, adding that “we have to change the corporate tax rate in America.”

He said the nation’s current tax and regulatory climate is an “incentive to move jobs and dollars overseas.”

“If it’s more efficient for them to do the jobs here, to do the manufacturing here, they’re going to do that,” Burgum said.

He’s spot-on there. Here’s the full video: