Romney defends Mass. health care law (Romney defends bankrupting Massachusetts)

Once again the Mittster violates the Rule of Holes...

People are on to this guy and “healthcare”. MA state treasurer was on Beck recently and pointed out that “Romneycare” is the warning bell for the national level. MA is billions in debt.

While Gov.Palin was working against ObamaCARE
where was the most-RINO backstabber-in-chief Mitt Romney?

Hiding, sending out his manipulators,
selling his ghostwritten book, pushing Obamacare=Romneycare,
helping Gore push the fraud of climate change,
and actually (true to form) attacking the "tea party".

RomneyCARE-creator and uber chameleon Mitt RomneyCARE:
”Now that my Romneycare is national ready to hurt hundred of millions,
a little self examination may be in order for you FReepers.
You may want to ask yourself “if I had spent my time promoting
RomneyCare and Mitt Romney, could I not have garnered more support
of both Mr. Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney?“

“Romney praises Obama again
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney praised President Obama
at a GOP fundraising dinner Wednesday ..
"I also think it's important for us to nod to the president when he's right," Romney said....
Romney, who spoke at a dinner for the National Republican Senatorial Committee,
said he's pleased with the president's plans to "finish the job" in Iraq and Afghanistan
-- lines that drew applause from the partisan audience. He also applauded the president
for standing up to the auto industry.
"I hope he continues to be tough ....The former businessman even offered faint praise for
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, saying that after a series of initial missteps,
"I think he's finally getting close to the right answer."

Going to Mitt Romney for answers on health care would be like going to Teddy Kennedy for advice on water rescue.

“Overall, ours is a model that works,’’ Romney said in response to a question after a speech at Iowa State University. “We solved our problem at the state level. Like it or not, it was a state solution.

Hey Mitt, you better tell that to Massachusetts State Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill! He wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal recently describing their socialist health care system as a "fiscal train wreck". He explains the projected cost in 2006 to taxpayers was $88 million. The actual cost to date is more than $4 billion. Governor Patrick recently announced a $294 million shortfall related to health care costs.

He further explains Massachusetts would be broke if not for federal Medicaid reimbursements and repeated bailouts from Washington

I couldn’t vote for the guy. In many respects, he seems like a good choice, but his defense of what is clearly a huge mistake makes him unelectable to me.

I don’t think he can get away from it or defend it with any success, he did it and he owns it!!!

Correct. Which, I suppose, is why in some convulted way the Mittster is actually right. Massachusetts was determined to have their health care, so Mitt went along and tried to make it less of a fustercluck than ObamaCare, but it turned into a fustercluck anyway . . .

One would think Mitt would have the sense to stop digging when he's already in a deep, deep hole.

Did Romney have veto power over MA healthcare?

“I couldn’t vote for the guy. In many respects, he seems like a good choice, but his defense of what is clearly a huge mistake makes him unelectable to me.”

Mitt is a Republican Bill Clinton or John Edwards without the horniness. The man is a snake who cannot be trusted. He ran as a pro-abort, pro-gay, anti-gun candidate when he thought it was in his interest in Mass and he tried to run as a conservative to further his own interests in 2008. Its almost impossible to know what Mitt’s core beliefs are.

Mitt is a chameleion. He is anything to anybody at the moment.

As a 2012 candidate, Obama would be a shoe-in.

Sarah Palin is the only one who can energize the right and the moderates and independents, and save this country.

Mitt would be a train wreck—with a nice smile.

Keep spinning Mittens. Maybe you can hire David Frum to help. I hear tell the “economy” has recently cost him his job.

I suppose he could have vetoed it, not much chance it would have stood. Of course he was for it so the question is moot!

Romney, himself as in he alone, imposed both ROMNEYCARE
and gay marriage and the BIG DIG coverup.

Many Massachusetts residents now have insurance coverage but can't find a physician.
…56 percent of Massachusetts physicians in internal medicine aren't accepting new patients.
…new patients fortunate enough to secure an appointment with a primary care doctor have an average waiting time of 44 days! .”

“Cahill bashes (MA) state -- and national -- health care reform law
State Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill, an independent candidate for governor, today offered
a wide-ranging and scathing criticism of the state’s universal health care law, saying it is
bankrupting Massachusetts and will do the same nationally, if a similar plan is passed in
Congress.
"If President Obama and the Democrats repeat the mistake of the health insurance reform
here in Massachusetts on a national level, they will threaten to wipe out the American
economy within four years,” Cahill said in a press conference in his office.
Echoing criticism leveled by Congressional Republicans in recent weeks, Cahill said, “It
is time for the president, the Democratic leadership, to go back to the drawing board and
come up with a new plan that does not threaten to bankrupt this country.”

“In his defense, Romney admitted to Fox that about half of the real costs of “extending
coverage to the uninsured” (aka forcing young, healthy people to buy expensive
insurance they don’t need) is covered by federal tax dollars. In other words, as expensive
as it is, without federal subsidies it would cost even more.
So when there’s a federal Obamacare plan, who do we taxpayers turn to for our
subsidies? China? The United Nations? Mr. Spock and the United Federation of Planets?”

“Mr. Romney's subsidized coverage is meanwhile doing what entitlements do: crowding
out private insurers, compounding the cost explosion, walking the state toward rationing.
So long as the former governor clings to these central points of his health plan, he's on
the wrong side of free-market policy and public opinion.

This isn't going away for Mr. Romney either, which is why he'd do better by writing off
his own plan as a mistake that Democrats have made worse, and replacing it with a
proposal that deregulates and reforms the private market to lower insurance costs
(thereby achieving greater coverage).”

From CATO (the whole article is worthwhile): “Before RomneyCare was enacted, estimates of the number of uninsured in
Massachusetts ranged from 372,000 to 618,000. Under the new program, about 219,000
previously uninsured residents have signed up for insurance. Of these, 133,000 are
receiving subsidized coverage, proving once again that people are all too happy to accept
something “for free,” and let others pay the bill. That is in addition to 56,000 people who
have been signed up for Medicaid. The bigger the subsidy, the faster people are signing
up. Of the 133,000 people who have signed up for insurance since the plan was
implemented, slightly more than half have received totally free coverage.

“Health Care Speechwriter for Edwards, Obama & Clinton Now Without Health Insurance”
I'm a critic because what Washington is talking about doing
has made health insurance unaffordable in Massachusetts.

“Small businesses bridle at health insurance hikes (Romneycare strangles Mass. businesses)
some really bad news from Blue Cross-Blue Shield: His company’s health insurance rates are going up 47 percent in January.”

“ Rationing medicine has already begun
… government-
run health care has introduced rationing and waiting lists and cost the lives of the people under its provisions.”

“DEATH PANELS OPEN FOR BUSINESS IN MASSACHUSETTS”

“President Obama's newly confirmed regulatory czar defended the
possibility of removing organs from terminally ill patients without their permission.”

“You can’t reap these savings without limiting patients’ choices in some way," said Paul Levy, CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess.”

“State plan may place limits on patients’ hospital options( Mass. RomneyCare )”

"Romney Visits Nebraska, Talks Health Care [where he defends Romneycare] “

"Paying the Health Tax in Massachusetts [Romneycare]
Massachusetts requires every resident to have health insurance, and this
year, without informing us directly, the state had changed the rules in a way that made
our bare-bones policy no longer acceptable. Unless we ponied up for a pricier policy we
neither need nor want—or enrolled in a government-sponsored insurance plan—we
would have to pay $1,000 each year to the state.
How did we become outlaws? “

"National Health Preview - The Massachusetts debacle, coming soon to your neighborhood."
It was only a matter of time.
They're trying to manage the huge costs of the subsidized middle-class insurance program that is gradually swallowing the state budget.
The program provides low- or no-cost coverage to about 165,000 residents, or three-fifths of the newly insured, and is budgeted at $880 million for 2010, a 7.3% single-year increase that is likely to be optimistic.
The state's overall costs on health programs have increased by 42% (!) since 2006."

A Very Sick Health Plan; Bay State’s ‘Grand Experiment’ Fails [RomneyCare]
"Initiated on Mr. Romney’s gubernatorial watch in 2006, this “experiment” has fallen on hard times, and predictably so. “

Health care in Massachusetts: a warning for America [Romney brings Mass. to its knees]
The Bay State's mandatory insurance law is raising costs, limiting access, and lowering care.
Three years ago, Massachusetts adopted a plan requiring all residents to purchase health
insurance, with state subsidies for lower-income residents. But rather than creating a
utopia of high-quality affordable healthcare, the result has been the exact opposite –
skyrocketing costs, worsened access, and lower quality care."

"‘Severe’ doc shortage seen hiking wait time
“The shortage is getting more severe”"

“Health costs to rise again.( RomneyCare )
The state’s major health insurers plan to raise premiums by about 10 percent next year,
prompting many employers to reduce benefits and shift additional costs to workers.”

“Nation’s ill-advised to follow Mass. plan [Health plan a failure]
September 17, 2009 The canary is dead.
Massachusetts, the model for the ObamaCare universal insurance plan, is the canary in
the health care coal mine. Yesterday, its obit appeared on the front page of both The Wall
Street Journal and The Boston Globe-Democrat “

"Bay State Insurance Premiums Highest in Country - Boston Globe August 22, 2009
Massachusetts has the most expensive family health insurance premiums in the country,
according to a new analysis that highlights the state’s challenge in trying to rein in medical costs
40 percent higher than in 2003. Over the same period, premiums nationwide rose an average of 33 percent..."

"Massachusetts: the laboratory for ObamaCare“

"Massachusetts' Obama-like reforms increase health costs, wait times [RomneyCare]
Premiums are growing 21 to 46 percent faster than the national average"

"Mass. Pushes Rationing to Control Universal Healthcare Costs (RomneyCare)
A 10-member Massachusetts state healthcare advisory board unanimously recommended
that the state begin rationing healthcare to keep the state’s marquee universal health care program afloat financially.”

"1,000 cancer patients 'refused treatment'"

"Massachusetts Universal Healthcare System Breaking Down Already
ERs in Massachusetts have not seen a downturn in visits. On the contrary, it seems that ER visits are actually on the upswing in the Bay State. In fact, in 2007 they were higher than the national average by 20 percent...”

"Hospital patients 'left in agony'"

"National Health Preview - The Massachusetts debacle, coming soon to your neighborhood.
In Massachusetts's latest crisis,
They're trying to manage the huge costs of the subsidized middle-class insurance program that is gradually swallowing the state budget.
The program provides low- or no-cost coverage to about 165,000 residents, or three-fifths of the newly insured, and is budgeted at $880 million for 2010, a 7.3% single-year increase that is likely to be optimistic.
The state's overall costs on health programs have increased by 42% (!) since 2006
Mr. Romney should have known better before signing on to this not-so-grand experiment, especially since the state's "free market" reforms that he boasts about have proven to be irrelevant when not fictional.
Only 21,000 people have used the "connector" that was supposed to link individuals to private insurers."

A Very Sick Health Plan; Bay State’s ‘Grand Experiment’ Fails [RomneyCare]
… fiscal troubles aplenty within Repubican Mitt Romney’s brainchild, Massachusetts’ “grand experiment” in “universal” health care."
"Initiated on Mr. Romney’s gubernatorial watch in 2006, this “experiment” has fallen on hard times, and predictably so.
Even though the Bay State commenced its program with a far smaller percentage of uninsured residents than exists nationwide,
“RomneyCare” is threatening to bankrupt the state.“

"Dem Congresswoman Admits Obama Health Care Plan Will Destroy Private Health Insurance Industry"

"Romney’s mistreatments a sick man, as Gov. Mitt Romney meets a medical marijuana patient"

He is one of many RINOs whom I wish would just go away. We don’t need that kind of democrat in our party, or what’s left of it.

Message to Mitt and Obama...

When you signed your socialist healthcare bills into law your political fate was forever sealed.

Romney is uniquely unqualified to be the Republican nominee. He’s the only Republican I know of that has openly supported socialized medicine.

He’s over and done; needs to stop wasting our time.

Raving moonbats like you are what keeps his campaign alive. Were it not for the whacked-out deranged element, most people would see Mitt as the garden variety RINO which he is.

Thanks to your element, some people are taking a second look because they figure a guy which drives moonbats into a foaming, raging hissy fit can't be all bad.

Arguing over the merits of RomneyCare vs. ObamaCare is idiotic. They are both clearly fusterclucks. RomenyCare has two advantages, however: (1)It is further along, so people can actually see the results clearly. (2)It is on a state level which means the damage is both easier to contain and to undo.

Friendly advice: When your opponent is digging himself into a hole, let him keep digging.

Do you really believe exposing Romney helps his campaign?