Alan Swain is retired and previously served in the U.S. Army for 26 years. He also owned a small government contracting business. He was also chairman of both the Wake County Republican Party and the NCGOP 2nd Congressional District. Swain earned a bachelor’s in political science from The Citadel in 1976, a Master of Science in aeronautics from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in 1988, and a master’s in political science from Auburn University in 1989.
Our Q&A with Alan Swain
Note: The candidate answered these questions in an in-person interview with NC Health News.
What would be your plan for ensuring the future security/ strength of Medicare?
We want to make sure we keep Medicare. The big thing is, we need to figure out how we can cut out some of the Medicare fraud. I would like to relook at who’s eligible for it, because we do have Medicaid also, so that’s another version. But there are some people that seem to be dipping into both.
What would you support in Congress as a plan to help control health care/ pharmaceutical costs?
President Trump initiated the $35 for insulin, and then President Biden carried it forward. So that’s big. Seniors on fixed income, all this stuff impacts them significantly. I’m on Medicare myself. What you want to do is make sure that you have the opportunity to take care of your seniors. I mean, they’re the ones that are hurt the most. When I first started my campaign, I wanted to have the seniors have no tax on Social Security. Now, President Trump, in the last three weeks, has now jumped on that bandwagon. So he’s on the Swain Train.
Where do you stand on time limits for Medicaid and work requirements for the program?
In support of that.
What can the federal government do to support rural hospitals?
I have a niece that went through PA school and they offset her loans where she would work in a rural hospital. That’s something we need to be doing. Because the population density is so low, they’re not going to have trauma centers. So you need some kind of plan to help those rural hospitals, whether it’s a medevac or something similar. We don’t want to lose the rural hospitals, because some of those people are never gonna leave anyways, but we need to give them the same adequate care that we’re trying to give in the metropolis.
Where do you stand on restoring funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program?
We need to do that. We’ve spent millions of dollars in the Inflation Reduction Act and we haven’t gotten it to our people yet, when all we had to do was sublease through Elon Musk’s Starlink and he would have cut a deal with the federal government just to be able to do that until the government got their act together. But it’s been two years and no one’s gotten broadband. It’s a failure, because of how they wrote the law. There are so many pitfalls you have to go through just to qualify to be the vendor.
PFAS contamination is a country-wide issue; How do you balance public safety and business interests with this issue?
We need to do more research. I don’t even know if it’s come up at Congress. I’d have to do some of my own research. I want to protect the environment for my children, my grandchildren. But we need to be smart about this, and we need to mature our technologies. Wind turbines and solar panels are a bridge but they’re immature. I have 24 solar panels on my house, but if we’re going to do this, we need to do it right. We need to look at new forms of energy, such as nuclear.
Is the federal government ready for the next pandemic?
Probably not.
In 2009, Congress required more transparency from hospitals on their charitable work: Do you think the federal government should enforce stricter requirements for nonprofit hospitals to justify their tax exemptions? Why or why not?
I think that’s what everyone wants. In fact, President Trump’s been advocating for transparency because you see those bills come in for Medicare. I happen to be retired military, so I have Tricare for life. But I’m wondering who’s getting all this money, because it’s pretty bad. When I lost my parents, both of them, we saw their bills. It was half million dollars for my dad’s hospital stay.
Where do you stand on federal abortion limits? What gestational limits, if any, would you set?
Roe was the law of the land for 51 years. It’s now kicked back to the states. North Carolina has passed a 12 week ban. When Roe was in existence, most people accepted the 20 weeks. Technology’s come a long way in 51 years, whether we have a viable fetus or not. There are some states that have gone a little crazy, and some have done six weeks. But, you know, I still believe, just like President Trump, you know, the health of the mother, the rape and incest, I have no problem with any of those [exceptions].
How can Congress improve access to child care? What states are leading the way that you think could be a good federal model? Support for the EITC/ child care tax credit?
We’ve got to do something, maybe look at some type of subsidizing based on personal income. I got two daughters with grandchildren. Those child care costs are even more than their grocery bill right now. It has gone up so exponentially. We don’t want to lose some of these mothers that want to work or the husband that wants to.
What steps would you take to improve access to mental health services and to address the opioid overdose crisis?
We don’t do enough. A problem person urinating in public, it’s easier to give him a slap on the wrist ticket. Because if we want to send them for mental evaluation, you lose that police officer all day. He must be with the patient. We have a shortfall of police officers. So we’re not doing anything for the individual, and we’re not getting them off the streets where they can harm children. When I was growing up, my father said, as long as you come in before the sun goes down, go do your thing. We can’t do that anymore.