That’s why he’s up in Florida- the snowbirds and q-tip crowds would love this.
The Massachusetts health care proposal is NOT socialized medicine, like MediCaid or MediCare.
Under Romney's proposal, the state negotiates with PRIVATE health insurance companies to offer DISCOUNTED low low cost PRIVATE health insurance to individuals or companies.
If an individual or company CAN'T afford the payments, which range from $90-$290 a month, depending on the PRIVATE plan, then the state will subsidize the cost -- or pay the entire cost for the individual or small business.
The plan's main purpose is to prevent regular middle-class and/or wealthy individuals from pushing off their high-cost hospital bills onto the backs of taxpayers (MediCaid or MediCare) when ever they have an emergency catastrophic health issue.
Hillary's health care plan in 1993 WAS socialized medicine, in that the government made all decisions on care, hospital choice, medicines allowed, diseases covered, schools one could attend, etc.
Under Romney's plan, ALL DECISIONS are still in the hands of individuals through PRIVATE health plans.
What is so hard to understand about this??
Romney is not for socialized medicine. He doesn’t want the government to foot 100% of the bill for America’s medical care. What his plan entails is: Making sure the free-market maintains a role in health care by using private insurance companies to insure all Americans. This will ensure that costs are controlled because private companies will keep an eye on their bottom lines.
The only government outlay would be to subsidize insurance premiums for those Americans that cannot afford the premium. This could actually save the U.S. money because right now, the government is paying for the health care of these people anyway without the cost controls that private insurance would impose. When the government gets a bill from a provider for one of these people, it is most likely going to pay it outright without any analysis of what the services were and how much the claim is for. A private insurance company is: #1 going to already have contracted rates with the providers that marks the maximum the provider is going to get paid, and #2 the privite insurer will be analyzing the claim during processing to determine if any unnessary services were performed. So, by utilizing private insurers, health care costs will be kept under control and the private sector can do this more efficiently than the government.
To call Romney’s plan socialistic is just plain wrong. The government will not be covering 100% of healthcare for everyone, nor will the gov’t be covering 100% of the premiums for everyone. The gov’t will be taking the money it is already spending on healthcare for the poorest Americans and instead of paying providers directly, it will be paying just for the insurance premiums to private insurers. The gov’t will probably save money by doing this and the free-market will be allowed to do what it does best: control costs.
I know you are sick of people asking you to read this article, or that article.
Who has time, right?
But this HUMAN EVENTS article should shed some light ....
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=13974
Please skim thru it, and then get back to me.
Thanks