“The most exciting development of the past few weeks is what has been happening up in Massachusetts. The health bill that Governor Romney signed into law this month has tremendous potential to effect major change in the American health system.”
We agree entirely with Governor Romney and Massachusetts legislators that our goal should be 100 percent insurance coverage for all Americans,”
“We also believe strongly that personal responsibility is vital to creating a 21st Century Intelligent Health System” "Individuals who can afford to purchase health insurance and simply choose not to place an unnecessary burden on a system that is on the verge of collapse; these free-riders undermine the entire health system by placing the onus of responsibility on taxpayers.”
"The Romney plan attempts to bring everyone into the system. The individual mandate requires those who earn enough to afford insurance to purchase coverage, and subsidies will be made available to those individuals who cannot afford insurance on their own. We agree strongly with this principle, but the details are crucial when it comes to the structure of this plan."
”While the Commonwealth’s plan will naturally endure tremendous scrutiny from those who assert that the law will not work as intended, Massachusetts leaders are to be commended for this bipartisan proposal to tackle the enormous challenge of finding real solutions for creating a sustainable health system.”
Gingrich also criticizes the law, but not enough to oppose it:
Under the new bill, Massachusetts residents earning more than 300% of the federal poverty level (approximately $30,000 for an individual) will not be eligible for any subsidies. State House officials had originally promised that there would be new plans available at about $200 a month, but industry experts are now predicting that the cheapest plan will likely cost at least $325 a month. This estimate totals about $4000 per year, or about 1/5 of a $30,000 annual take-home income.
While in theory the plan should be affordable if the whole state contributes to the cost, the reality is that Massachusetts has an exhaustive list of health coverage regulations prohibiting insurers from offering more basic, pared-down policies with higher deductibles. (This is yet another reminder that America must establish a cross-state insurance market that gives individuals the freedom to shop for insurance plans in states other than their own.)
In our estimation, Massachusetts residents earning little more than $30,000 a year are in jeopardy of being priced out of the system. In the event that this occurs, Governor Romney will be in grave danger of repeating the mistakes of his predecessor, Mike Dukakis, whose 1988 health plan was hailed as a save-all but eventually collapsed when poorly-devised payment structures created a malaise of unfulfilled promises. We propose that a more realistic approach might be to limit the mandate to those individuals earning upwards of $54,000 per year.
Just heard on FOX Newt didn’t write this!
HE DID NOT WRITE THIS!
I can’t recall the entire circumstances surrounding this. But, I recall Newt thinking out loud without taking a hard position.
He shouldn’t have and didn’t.
No need to commit until it’s time for any ball you swing at to make a difference whether you make it on base or homerun.
Hence his dissent.
Obama’s campaign will have a field day with ROMNEY. Romney STILL loves and defends RomneyCare and his mandates TODAY!! It’s his crowning achievement and glory.
It will be impossible for Romney to defeat Obama on this issue.
Likewise, it will be impossible for Romney to defeat Obama on the issues of Roe v Wade, abortion, gay rights, gun control, global warming, individual mandates, liberal activist judges, setting time tables for ending the wars or even on Ronald Reagan, conservatism vs progressivism, etc, etc, etc.
“I was an independent during Reagan-Bush, I’m not returning to Reagan-Bush!” —Mitt Romney
All the Obama campaign and their allies in leftist mainstream media have to do is play back Romney’s own campaign debates and appearances where he promotes the progressive liberal line and sounds exactly like Ted Kennedy or Obama.
Here is a compilation of a couple dozen of those clips. I’m sure there are many others that can be found on google or youtube and elsewhere and way too many to be scrubbed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=7OQoBxZZPqU
Watch it all the way through and weep. Might as well watch them now, because if Romney is the nominee, you will be seeing them played back every night on national TV right up until election day. And we’ll all be wincing as Romney twists and squirms and puts out lie after contradicting lie trying to defend the indefensible.
If Romney is the nominee, Obama gets a second term.
You are correct.