Mitt Romney's Magic Act: Creating the Illusion Romneycare Is Different from Obamacare

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney won the Southern Republican Leadership Conference Presidential Poll April 10, defeating Rep. Ron Paul by a single vote, 438-437.

Behind Romney's victory is Romney's recent magic act: Campaigning against an Obama health care plan almost identical to the one he signed into law as governor of Massachusetts while at the same time positioning himself as the “conservative” Republican presidential contender. With his risible “conservative” packaging, the Republican contender has truly become the greatest pretender.

“Conservative” Romneycare was made possible only by many new tax increases, including gigantic income tax increases (as much as $1,116 per family in Massachusetts). Mitt Romney acknowledged on a March 7 Fox News Sunday interview that “We do insist that people buy insurance or pay their own way. And if they — if they don't buy insurance, they'll find that their taxes are higher.” Romneycare's individual tax penalties are even stiffer than those under Obamacare.

Yet Romney has stridently campaigned against Obamacare even while defending his own record on Romneycare. Romney's “Free and Strong America PAC” has been campaigning for a “Prescription for Repeal,” something Romney describes as a program “which supports conservative candidates who will work to repeal the worst aspects of Obamacare and restore commonsense principles to healthcare.”

After Obamacare passed Congress, Romney wrote on the neo-conservative National Review blog: “America has just witnessed an unconscionable abuse of power. .... His health-care bill is unhealthy for America. It raises taxes, slashes the more private side of Medicare, installs price controls, and puts a new federal bureaucracy in charge of health care. It will create a new entitlement even as the ones we already have are bankrupt. For these reasons and more, the act should be repealed. That campaign begins today.”

The problem is that the Romney-care Mitt Romney helped establish in Massachusetts has identical planks with Obamacare. The Massachusetts state government notes that, in addition to controlling insurance prices, Romneycare consists of:

The lynchpins of Massachusetts’ health reform law (Chapter 58 of the Acts of 2006) are: (1) the individual mandate, which requires adults in the state to be insured if affordable insurance is available to them; (2) the merging of the individual and small group insurance markets; (3) the expansion of MassHealth, Massachusetts’ Medicaid program (4) the creation of the Health Connector, which administers Commonwealth Care, a new subsidized health insurance program for low-income residents, and functions as an insurance exchange that serves as a purchasing vehicle for individuals and small businesses; and (5) a set of new requirements of employers, including the Fair Share Contribution requirement and the requirement that businesses establish and maintain Section 125 (Cafeteria) Plans.

Thus, it's not surprising that Newsweek columnist Daniel Gross opined of Obamacare March 29: “Setting up this public-private partnership will require creating new infrastructure, managing a lot of moving parts, and dealing with powerful corporations and industry blocs. So who should President Obama appoint to be his health care reform implementation czar?... this sounds like a job for Mitt Romney.” Gross explains:

[T]here is the thing that disqualifies him from being the Republican nominee in 2012, which is the same thing that makes him best qualified for the job of health-care czar: He's basically already done it. In fact, he's the only executive who has done it. As countless commentators have noted (Alex Knepper from the right, Brad DeLong from the left, and David Frum from the spurned right), Obamacare largely is Romneycare. The concept of attaining near-universal health insurance in a defined geographic area using a combination of a mandate, subsidies, and cost-control efforts is essentially what Romney did in Massachusetts earlier this decade.

Thus far, Gross appears to be wrong only on one point. If the Southern Republican Leadership presidential poll is any indicator, Romney's actions toward government control of health care in Massachusetts have not “disqualified” him from being the Republican nominee in 2012. GOP leaders there accepted him as a conservative even though he had shepherded his own version of Obamacare in as governor of Massachusetts.

Doesn't the author mean will that it is a question of whether the main stream media's equivocation between Romney's health care reform in Massachusetts and Obamacare, will actually stick?

Americans are clued into the fact that IT IS THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE PLAN that make the difference, NOT THE SIMILARITIES.

Obamacare is unconsistutional according to many experts, but Romney's health reform in MA is not.

Americans can also see that it is a political argument to claim that Romney is the "father" of Obama's health care plan, but not actually true.

If the two plans are nearly identical, and Romney is the "father" of health care then why is the MA plan only 70 pages and Obama's 2000 pages? Facts are stubborn things, aren't Mr. Eddlem?

Why wasn't Romney the expert consulted on about whether Obama's plan was "up-to-par" when the Democrats didn't consult Romney?

If Romney is the EXPERT, that Obama followed, then why didn't Obama follow Romney when Romney said that Obamacare was bad law?

Mr. Eddlem and the MSM have made some really bad arguments that are going to bite them in the behind in Nov 2010.

RomneyCARE is every bit as bad and evil as ObamaCARE.

No wonder Romney FLED Massachusetts to go hid as far away as he can in California.

ObamaCare’s Future, In Massachusetts Today ”Supporters of ObamaCare often argue that the new health care law is a lot like
Massachusetts’ reforms. But that program increasingly is running into problems with
costs and Bay Staters are becoming craftier about gaming the system.
Health insurers have filed suit against the state insurance commissioner:
Nearly a week after Massachusetts regulators disapproved 235 of 274 rate increases filed
by health insurers, citing the rising cost of care, a group of six companies is suing the
state for a move it says will “likely cause greater costs and confusion.”

“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"

Offensive Aspect	RomneyCare	ObamaCare
Individual mandate	Yes	Yes
Fines for non-compliance	Yes	Yes
Forcing individuals to subsidize abortions	Yes	Yes
Decreased benefits	Yes	Coming soon
Increased costs	Yes	Coming soon

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