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.
WHO YA GONNA CALL!!!!!!
Outpatient Care
Oh no, not Romney again! What a desperate loser. All the money in the world and he still got his ass handed to him by Chuckabee and McLame.
Romney’s a glutton for punishment because Palin is gonna stomp him real good...
Go away Romney! You’re not wanted here!
I’m surprised that any so-called conservatives can even stomach this guy. After this, I would doubt if even his Utah fan base would support him.
Health insurance does not equal medical care
We should think about banning Romneybots, the guy is poison and left the MA GOP a smoking crater.
Flintstone! Yoou’re Fired!
U can 4get being #2 in 2012.
I live in MA, if you don’t have healthcare you get fined when you file your state taxes every year, I forget how much a month but it adds up, secondly as far as doctors are concerned, if you are on the government plan chances are the doctor you had before is not on the plan, they don’t want any part of it, a lot of people who were not insured due to being unemployed and unable to afford COBRA are forced to go on the government plan and when they do they can’t see the doctor they’ve been seeing for years, they have to travel to the other side of the state to find one under the government plan and from what I’ve heard the quality of care is not the same and the wait time to see said doctor is longer....when you’ve been seeing a particular doc for years you just pick up the phone and say hey doc I’m sick when can I come in, chances are you’re in that afternoon or the next morning, not under government plan, you go to the bottom of the list and you’d be lucky to get seen in a month. The cost of having to insure everyone else is costing the rest of us big money, everyone’s plan has been changed, we are getting less and paying more, PLUS gaysachusetts wants to give “the poor” FREE dental care, they’re already getting cars, cellphones, food stamps, housing, healthcare now they’re getting dental that the rest of us have to pay for, some of us don’t have dental insurance so we pay as we go, now we won’t be able to go because we’ve got to pay for someone else.....
THAT is exactly why he will NEVER be President. Socialism is Socialism, where ever it rears its ugly head! Today it's healthcare, tomorrow it will be cap/trade. He cannot be trusted to do the right thing!
I hope NOT to ever read another pro Romney remark again here at FR. The guy is in the wrong Political Party.
Ping
I will never ever ever vote for a socialist. Ever. The thought of a republican nominee being for socialized medicine should be a non-starter for anyone who calls himself a conservative.
Actually, when the 6 months expired without the legislature doing anything to fix the law to prohibit same-sex marriage, Romney sent letters enforcing the law as it had now been interpreted by the courts.
It is a common mistake some make to think that the court wasted everybody’s time by issuing a ruling that did nothing, and that the legislature HAD to act to make gay marriage legal.
The opposite is true — the court ruled that the existing Mass. law as interpreted by their view of the constitution required gay marriage, but STAYED that ruling for 6 months to give the legislature time to change the law if the legislature wanted to correct the law so it still prohibited gay marriage.
The courts used the logic that the term “man” and “woman” should each be interpreted inclusively. Theoretically, the law could have been fixed by changing the terms to “male” and “female”, terms that had not been de-genderized by “common law”.
I strongly disagree with the court’s ruling, but their interpretation of the words in the law effectively made the law as it existed a “gay marriage” law.
That of course is why, when the court made their ruling, every media outlet reported that they had legalized gay marraige, and every conservative organization sent out e-mails decrying the court’s ruling as legalizing gay marriage.
It is fascinating to see that, years later, some people want to ignore the evidence and the history we all lived through and suggest that the opposite was true.
The legislature refused to fix the law to prohibit gay marriage, and when the people asked for a referendum, they couldn’t get 25% of the legislature to allow it — 75% of the people elected in Mass. were FOR gay marriage.
I had a splinter in my foot today, I couldn’t see it when I got it at 1AM lat night, so I went to the walk-in at where my primary physician has his office, They placed a drop of iodine on it, used a scalpel, cut the skin, took three tries with tweezers, put some Bacitrin on it and a big band aid. It was $225.
Out freaking rageous. Period.
I am never going back there.
I am working out every day I can (weights every other day)
I will be 56 on Saturday.
I am taking the position that if I don’t take care of myself, I will have no options, even though I have “insurance.”
The practice I went to does not “accept”
If I were charged what I should have been for what I got I would hae paid it out of pocket and would not be concerned with third party payola.
The system is ******. totally, and the Demoncrats will just make it impossible. I guess I could call a lawyer and sue.
Years ago, when Romney ran for the U.S. Senate against Ted Kennedy, didn’t Romney take out full-page newspapers ads claiming that he, Romney, would be a bigger advocate for gay rights than Ted Kennedy?
Too bad Palin isn’t electable.
Jindal or DeMint should be our top choices.
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