Posted on 07/09/2009 6:05:03 PM PDT by rabscuttle385
Former GOP Governor Helped Make 2006 Reform Reality.
BOSTON -- Three years after the inception of Massachusetts’ landmark health reform legislation, which required every citizen to buy insurance, NewsCenter 5’s Ed Harding wondered what former Gov. Mitt Romney, a key political architect of the plan, thought of its progress. Call it protecting his legacy, well-earned pride, or seeing the glass as half-full, but Romney says Massachusetts deserves an ‘A.’
“It’s working like we had hoped it would work,” the one-time republic presidential candidate said. “We got nearly everybody in Massachusetts health insurance, which really, something people didn't think was possible.”
Romney said the same can be done nationwide, though he concedes what many in the Bay State are grappling with now, that the hardest part of the reform debate is controlling costs. It is projected that within a decade health care will account for 20 percent of all money spent in the United States.
Currently, health care accounts for between 17 and 18 percent of the United States’ gross domestic product.
“It’s huge,” said Romney. “We’ve got two challenges. One is to get everybody insured. Believe it or not that's the relatively easy job. The other job is to reign in the inflation associated with health care. We can do that too but it's a lot of work.”
Romney points to a recent analysis by the pro-reform Massachusetts Taxpayers’ Association, showing that since near-universal coverage was implemented in 2006, state taxpayers have had to shell out an additional $88 million per year to insure an additional 430,000 citizens.
“Some people say. ‘Oh, it's expensive,’ but actually, it cost less than two percent of the state budget.”
Romney is closely following the reform debate in Washington, DC, and pointed to President Barack Obama’s proposal for a government-run so-called public plan option as a “big mistake.”
“The current system with over 1,000 insurers in this country, is perfectly capable adequate to provide choice to people in America,” Romney said.
The former governor declined to answer when Harding asked if health care is a right of a privilege in the United States. He did insist, however, that on a national level politicians ought to be able to create a system where every citizen has health insurance.
It's not hard to get everybody to have insurance, if you pass a law that requires them to have insurance, and fines them the cost of insurance if they don't.
I'm glad they did this in Mass., because we can look at the results and see that providing everybody health insurance drives up health care costs -- something that should be obvious, something that even Romney notes, but which seems to be ignored by the media.
You can either provide everybody health insurance, or you can cut costs. You can't really do both unless you force everybody into a single-payer system run by the Government, and then ration health care.
We could significantly trim health care costs if we made it illegal to have health insurance for anything but catastrophic care. Then everybody would have to pay out of pocket, so doctors would have to compete for dollars.
If we had a national food insurance program, a Big Mac meal would have a $20 co-pay and you would have to schedule it a week in advance and wait 30 minutes when you got there.
StompMitt.com
Only 10% of Bay State voters say the quality of health care has gotten better as a result of the reform plan while 29% say it has gotten worse. Most (53%) say the quality of care has not changed.
As for cost, 21% say the reform has made health care more affordable in Massachusetts. Twenty-seven percent (27%) say health care is now less affordable while 44% see no change.
Massachusetts: 26% Consider State’s Health Care Reform a Success
the term “RINO” is overused, I am guilty of that myself. Romney however, should be considered a SUPER RINO!
MItt had nothing to do with gay marriage in Mass., he opposed it but the legislature forced it on the state through inaction.
I could defend Romney’s attempt to “fix” health care in Mass., but he’d be better off blaming the results on Democratic tinkering than trying to claim it is “working”. He is absolutely right that it has achieved the goal of insuring everybody, and he is also absolutely right that it has driven up the cost of health care.
He is wrong that doing those two things is a “success”.
Is this butthead still around?
He is helping to draw a very visible line between the RINOs and the conservatives, like Palin.
The more the RINOs box themselves in (with the leftists), the better it is for us and the country.
“MItt had nothing to do with gay marriage in Mass., he opposed it but the legislature forced it on the state through inaction.”
I’m so glad to hear you say that. I had heard that within a few weeks of the Court’s decision to have the legislature act within six months, Romney sent letters to all the town clerks ordering them to issue same-sex marriage licenses!
Your version is so much better.
So this is the guy the GOP is rallying around. They have deserted Sarah Palin and want this guy to be the guy we are supposed to embrace..Ok I get it..I see nothing has changed in the GOP, same ol BS..if Romney is the GOP Nominee in 2012 I am gonna stay home. People can vote for whoever they want, I don’t care, but I won’t vote for this guy. He is the White Obama as far as I’m concerned
O.M.G! (That would be Romney, he is a God [in his own mind]).
[Romney Gives Mass. Health Reform An ‘A’ ]
This ought to finally sink him as a Repub candidate. How long will it take for the apologists to show up saying “Mitt has soooo much better credentials in business!”
He’s a modern republican in the image of his opponent... call him Marxist Lite. It’s what the neo-rino’s do best.
The GOP had the house, the senate, the court and the white house and pissed it away. Now, trying that same successful logic, this clown goes Zero Lite.
Lovely. Nope, sorry kids. You hold your nose to vote, it STILL STINKS! The GOP needs an enema, or this republic is doomed.
Yep, by pointing out that he's a socialist and she isn't!
True, since it has been made clear to us climate heritics that the government does indeed have the power to alter the world's climate, it should be child's play for them to change the laws of economics and the marketplace.
"For middle-income people not qualifying for state-subsidized health insurance, costs are too high for even skimpy coverage. For an individual earning $31,213, the cheapest plan can cost $9,872 in premiums and out-of-pocket payments."
and
"Low-income residents, previously eligible for free care, have insurance policies requiring unaffordable copayments for office visits and medications."
and
"High-deductible plans that have additional out-of-pocket expenses can result in many people not using their insurance when they are sick."
and
"Spending for the Commonwealth Care subsidized program has doubled, from $630 million in 2007 to an estimated $1.3 billion for 2009, which is not sustainable."
If the GOP gives us Mitt in 2012, I won't vote for him.
He is helping to draw a very visible line between the RINOs and the conservatives, like Palin.
Exactly!
I am not actually one of the anti-Romneys, but if he doesn’t realize what a failure this mess in Mass is, that will surely change.
And it looks like he is not getting it.
I would be happy to have a comprehensive bill, if they let Jeff Sessions write the thing. I listened to his ideas during the last debate. He wants an immigration policy that looks out for the interests of America, something quite different than what these others are talking about.
It's not hard.
Kill the old, the infirm, the newborns who are sick, and raise everybody's taxes.
Problem solved!
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