Mitt Romney decries the excesses of ObamaCare, yet refuses to admit that the plan he championed in Massachusetts provided Obama with a model. In key areas, the two plans are essentially identical. Cato Institute Executive Vice President David Boaz and Director of Health Policy Studies Michael F. Cannon discuss the politics and policy of RomneyCare and Obamacare.
Category Heath Care / RomneyCare
56% of Massachusetts Citizens Think State Can’t Afford RomneyCare
A new poll by Suffolk University shows that most Massachusetts citizens think their “near universal healthcare” is not something that the state can afford.
Q21. Do you think Massachusetts can afford the current system of near
universal healthcare?
Yes ……………………………………..34%
No ……………………………………… 56%
Undecided …………………………….10%
Mitt Romney’s Documented Doublespeak on MA Health Care Costs
MITT ROMNEY (Oct, 27th, 2009):
“We were unable to deal with — and didn’t have any pretense we would somehow be able to change — health care costs in Massachusetts”
MITT ROMNEY (April, 2006):
“Every uninsured citizen in Massachusetts will soon have affordable health insurance and the costs of health care will be reduced.”
Hint for Mitt: Generally the public isn’t a fan of stuff like this.
RomneyCare health system moving towards “restriction on choice”
Today, conservative media watchdog group Newsbusters in a post titled, “Boston Globe: Serious Rationing Nearly a Reality Under MA’s CommonwealthCare” highlighted some of the major problems with the Massachusetts health care system plan championed by Mitt Romney. Tom Blumer writes:
It would also not surprise me to learn that Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick is still singing the praises of CommonwealthCare, the state-run system conservatives also deride as RomneyCare, so named after Mitt Romney, Patrick’s allegedly Republican predecessor who brought it into being.
And…
The Boston Globe’s Liz Kowalczyk has inconveniently reminded statists (HT Hot Air) that the alleged wonders of the Bay State’s care regimen are instead leading it inexorably into serious rationing, and to a direct contradiction of Obama’s and Patrick’s core claims. Currently on the horizon are serious limitations on choice of care providers and annual capitated payments to those providers.
The key quote from the Boston Globe article is:
“You can’t reap these savings without limiting patients’ choices in some way,’’ said Paul Levy, chief executive of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. “It’s a huge issue, it’s huge.’’ Dr. James Mongan, president of Partners HealthCare, a Beth Israel Deaconess competitor, agreed that it wouldn’t “work without some restriction on choice.’’
Author Joseph Finder Calls RomneyCare “Terrible” on Hannity Program
Watch at the 3 minute mark for the statements of Joseph Finder who is an ObamaCare & RomneyCare critic.
New York Times bestselling author Joseph Finder joins the Great American Panel on “Hannity” (Fox News) to discuss his new novel VANISHED and the latest about healthcare coverage. Aired August 18, 2009.
Forbes: “Mitt Romney’s Big-Government Health Care Plan…a mess.”
An excerpt:
Romney’s program appears to have done very little about the central problem–actually, the only real problem–with health care: spiraling costs. In seven of the last eight years, as economist Irwin Stelzer has noted, per-capita spending on health care in Massachusetts has increased faster than in the nation as a whole, and health insurance costs in the Bay State now run about a third higher than the national average.
Glenn Beck of FoxNews Slams MA “RomneyCare”
Mitt Romney & Ted Kennedy at the 2006 signing of RomneyCare in Massachusetts:
RomneyCare Massachusetts Health Care Failing
What happens with government gets involved in mandating health care? Bad news. If Mitt Romney was President right now, he would be working with the Democrats for government health care AGAINST conservatives and Republicans. That is bad news.
Wall Street Journal July 2009: The Massachusetts Health Mess
NewsBusters July, 2009: WSJ: RomneyCare’s Failures in MA Not ‘Widely Known’; I Wonder Why?
CATO Feb. 2008: Lessons from the Fall of RomneyCare
CATO Jan. 2008: Whatever Became of RomneyCare?
Wall Street Journal July 2008: The Price of RomneyCare
Conservatives4Palin March 2009: Scary: RomneyCare As A Preview Of National Health Care
HumanEvents June 2006: Romney Care Is a Sham
OneNewsNow July 2009: Nationally ranked hospital victim of universal healthcare (MA RomneyCare)
