Jan. 24 Republican debate transcript

McCain: Who's answering this question?

Giuliani: Well, you can answer it too, John.

McCain: Thank you.

Giuliani: OK.

Now, you've said that -- I'm not sure exactly the position that you took on it.

Giuliani: And you said you were going to talk to the insurance companies and get their advice.

And I wonder if you've come to a position on it, because I think this is something that is important to the people of Florida. Do you have a position on the national catastrophic fund, yes, no, and what qualifications?

Romney: The answer is, yes, I do support some kind of national catastrophic effort to make sure that people can get homeowner's insurance that protects them against flood, or hurricane, or a tornado, or whatever natural disaster might occur or manmade disaster, in some cases.

We had the problem not just in Florida, but we also had the problem in Massachusetts. Those poor folks that are snow birds that go from Massachusetts to Florida see it in both states, because people who live along the coastline across the Atlantic have the same problem. Getting homeowner's insurance is oftentimes almost impossible.

And so we're going to have to do, as you just indicated, we're going to have to work together to create a program that gets people in high-risk areas insured.

Now, I'm not in favor of saying that the people in Iowa should have to subsidize the people in Massachusetts or the people in Florida. That doesn't make a lot of sense.

But to have those states that are in high-risk areas come together and say, "How do we organize an effort on a national basis that actuarially deals with the differences between different states and the different risks they face and make sure that we have a backstop behind the private insurance industry?" That makes a lot of sense.

And that's something which I -- well, frankly, I took on tough problems like that in health insurance. People thought it was impossible to get everybody health insurance.

And I got a group of people together from the industry, from government, from academics. We came together. We found a way to get everybody insured with private, free market health insurance. And I want to do the same thing with regards...

Giuliani: But in that case, you used mandates. And you're not in favor of mandates for the country?

Romney: Well, that's a whole different question, so we'll come back and talk about our health insurance plan.

Williams: We are...

Romney: I do support an effort to get everybody some form of catastrophic coverage. And it may be a public-private partnership between private insurance industries and the federal government. It may be done with the states.

But I'll bring together the governors of all 50 states, as well as leadership in Washington, as well as industry representatives, to say, "What's the right way to fashion this that makes the most sense for the people of America?"

Williams: Time is up.

Senator McCain, I did hear your name in that question. You want to take 30 seconds for rebuttal, please?

McCain: Well, frankly, it takes a little more than 30 seconds. But, look, this is a terrible problem, not only here in Florida, but across the states that are subject to hurricanes.

And as more and more violent weather patterns take place, people's homes are in more and more jeopardy. We've got to address this issue.

We can address it regionally. We can address it with the governors and the legislatures, working with the federal government, to have insurance spread across state lines, increasing the risk pool. We can reform insurance.

There's so many things that we can do. And we have to sit down together and figure it out.

Now, the bill that passed through the House of Representatives was $200 billion, no insurance reform whatsoever associated with it, no way to pay for it, and that burden is shared by everybody.

We can sit down together. I will call the regulators, the governors, and the legislators together. And we will work together. And we will provide every American that's in jeopardy, particularly of hurricanes, a way to have the insurance that they need and deserve.

I'm confident we can do it together, working with the insurance companies, not setting up another huge federal bureaucracy, $200 billion which still nobody has said how you're going to pay for it.