Six Nebraska gubernatorial candidates talk health care, taxes at forum

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – Six Nebraska governor candidates fielded questions Thursday at a forum sponsored by the Nebraska Association of Health Underwriters and the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors.

A lot of the questions were around access to health care across the state, health insurance prices and financial literacy on topics like retirement plans.

Every candidate had different ways to tackle high medical and pharmaceutical prices.

“Drop all of those excessive regulations,” said Michael Connely a former Marine. “Allow them to be licensed the same way they are licensed in all the other states. That will take a huge burden off of not only the cost, but it will also make a lot of access to rural medicine available.”

Lela McNinch said malpractice judgments are driving up costs.

“If we can put caps on that and say there is only so much you have to pay for malpractice, then that also lowers our cost for insurance for people across the state,” she said.

Breland Ridenour, an information technology manager, said the state should study how it can “leverage technology to reduce costs and increase access.”

“We need to be innovators,” he said.

Former State Sen. Theresa Thibodeau said the “one-on-one, in-person relationship with your physician” is the best health care.

“There are a lot of physicians that do outreach clinics throughout the state, and I think it’s very important to expand that and then have some of the telehealth in between for follow-up visits,” she said.

State Sen. Carol Blood said Nebraska needs an interstate compact allowing health care professionals to “work across state lines and come into Nebraska without any hurdles to licensure.”

State Sen. Brett Lindstrom said he worked on the prescription price negotiation process this year, “making sure that those products and those drugs that individuals were getting they got the best rate for them.”

When it came to whether there should be a state-sponsored retirement plan, only one candidate liked the idea.

“I actually think it would be beneficial to have some type of state retirement program that is optional but also profitable,” Connely said. “Not something that we pay a lot of taxes into. Something that can be a stand-alone situation that we do not have to rely upon the feds or some of their programs in order to handle that.”

While the other five candidates opposed the idea, they agreed that there needs to be more education on finances.

Individuals and small employers need to be taught about 401(k) options that do not “break the bank,” Thibodeau said.

When asked about how to gain, retain and support health care workers who experience burnout, the candidates each had a different idea.

“I think we need to consider tuition reimbursement for those in the medical field who choose to enter into the rural part of the state,” McNinch said.

Ridenour said he has spent time with health care providers on the campaign trail.

“And I will continue to support and protect them as governor of Nebraska,” he said.

Thibodeau said doctors need to be free to do “what they feel is best for their patient.”

“The government shouldn’t try to go in and be a doctor,” she said.

Blood said the state must address mental health problems in the health care workforce.

“We need to stop politicizing what they do and making it part of our political rhetoric. Shame on the people who have done that,” she said.

Connely said health care workers shouldn’t lose their job because they haven’t been vaccinated.

“First off you do not fire the people,” he said.

Lindstrom said the state needs to get more 18- to 35-year-olds working in health care.

When asked about taxes, candidates had different thoughts on what is a good idea, what they wouldn’t support and what tax cuts they would push.

“I would love to eliminate the inheritance tax, but in order to do that we need to identify an alternate funding source to cover the balance of what those counties’ needs are so that we don’t end up destroying them,” McNinch said.

Lindstrom pointed to the tax cuts passed this year.

“That is money that can be used on not only groceries, but health care,” he said

Ridenour called the inheritance tax “morally reprehensible” and “bad policy.”

“If anything, we should be supporting Nebraskans and trying to keep that money and those farms here in Nebraska,” he said.

Connely agreed, saying it is “reprehensible” to “tax someone when they die.”

Thibodeau said, “It’s a must to address the property tax, and then hit income tax even further.”

Blood said everybody needs an opportunity to create generational wealth, “so generation after generation doesn’t have to worry about where their next meal is coming from.”