How is Romney’s health care system not socialist? Mandated health care coverage is socialized health care because it amounts to a government mandated tax. Romney is not conservative on social issues, and that might not bother you if you are not a social conservative, but if you approve of Romney’s health care system I do not see how you can count yourself as a fiscal conservative. I guess I am trying to see why you would support Mitt. I think the Republicans should set their sights a little higher than just beating Obama.
It is not socialist because it keeps everything — insurance and health care — in the private sector. It was designed originally by the Heritage Foundation, as reliably conservative a group as you can get. It was made more expensive in the Democrat legislature.
I’m not sure I agree with it, because I don’t know the details about emerging problems, and where they arise. But it is not socialist. It was designed to head off socialized medicine. It was a serious attempt to deal with the very real problem of free riders, who don’t bother to insure themselves, then show up at emergency rooms when they need treatment. They are already shoving their costs onto the rest of us. The free riders are one reason the costs of medical care are so high.
If people want to be free to forego health insurance, doctors and hospitals should be free to turn them away when they show up at the emergency room — even if they are bleeding to death. But that is not how it works, and the free riders know that is not how it works. They know they will get the care they need, and that someone else will pay for it.
But, this is a problem that needs to be solved if the costs of health care are to be kept in line.