“The only way to get truly universal care is to throw people in jail if they don’t have it,” Mick Mulvaney says
White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney claimed Sunday that the only way to achieve universal healthcare would be to throw people in jail.Â
This week, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that under the GOP’s plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare, 24 million Americans could lose their health insurance.Â
Mulvaney was asked by John Dickerson, host of CBS News’ “Face The Nation,” about Trump’s statements from January, in which he said: “There was a philosophy in some circles that if you can’t pay for it, you don’t get it. That’s not going to happen with us.â€
“He’s talking about universal care there. That’s not — you’re not going to have universal care after these changes,” Dickerson said, referring to the GOP plan.Â
“We don’t have universal — the only way to have universal care, if you stop to think about it, is to force people to buy it under penalty of law,” Mulvaney responded, referring to Obamacare’s individual mandate, under which some people must pay a penalty if they don’t obtain health insurance.
“Again, the only way to get truly universal care is to throw people in jail if they don’t have it,” Mulvaney added. “And we are not going to do that.”
Needless to say, dozens of countries provide universal healthcare without throwing people in jail. While some have individual mandates, others use what is known as a single payer system.Â
It’s not the first time Republicans like Mulvaney have fear-mongered about the prospect of people being thrown in jail under an individual mandate. Back in 2010, with regard to Obamacare, PolitiFact found this claim to be a “Pants On Fire” lie.
“In fact, the law specifically states that people who don’t pay the fine cannot be charged criminally,” the fact-checking service concluded. “It also forbids liens or levies placed on property for failure to pay.”Â