Romney Makes Case For Government-Run Health Care (9.21.09)

Spectator.org ^ | 9.21.09 | Philip Klein

[SoConPubbie]

There he goes again. Newsmax has published an interview with Mitt Romney in which he once again touts his big government Massachusetts health care plan as a monumental success:

"What we were able to accomplish was to get almost all of our citizens insured without breaking the bank and without having a so-called public option," Romney says. "I think the program is a real success and that it can teach lessons to other states, and to the nation."

To start with, Romney is wrong on the merits. Michael Cannon has done an excellent job documenting what a colossal failure Romneycare has been, bringing higher costs and longer wait times to citizens of Massachustetts. The Massachusetts Taxpayer Foundation numbers Romney cites in his interview understated the cost of the legislation by, among other things, ignoring the program's cost to the federal government. Even the state's Democratic State Treasurer, Timothy P. Cahill, has told the Boston Globe that the promised savings from the universal health care legislation never materialized, and he cautioned that, "It's a warning for the federal government as it looks to do something similar.''

It's bad enough that Romney would be so dishonest about conditions in Massachusetts, but its worse that at a crucial time in the national health care debate, Romney is publicly defending liberal policies, giving ammunition for Democrats to argue that their proposals are moderate when in reality they would amount to a government takeover of health care. While Romneycare did not include a "public option," neither does the Baucus bill, which is nearly identical to Romneycare in every meaningful way.