Q21. Do you think Massachusetts can afford the current system of near
universal healthcare?
Yes ……………………………………..34%
No ……………………………………… 56%
Undecided …………………………….10%

SOURCE: Suffolk University Poll, November 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.

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.’’

Romney in February speaking to CPAC:

I know we didn’t all agree on TARP. I believe that it was necessary to prevent a cascade of bank collapses. For free markets to work, there has to be a currency and a functioning financial system.

Romney in September speaking to VVS:

When government is trying to take over health care, buying car companies, bailing out banks, and giving half the White House staff the title of czar – we have every good reason to be alarmed and to speak our mind!

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.

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.

Read the whole Forbes article here.

Mitt Romney & Ted Kennedy at the 2006 signing of RomneyCare in Massachusetts:

Obama 48%, Huckabee 42%
Huckabee -6%

Obama 50%, Gingrich 42%
Gingrich -8%

Obama 51%, Palin 43%
Palin -8%

Obama 49%, Romney40%
Romney -9%

Spread vs. Obama:

From 7/20/2009 Release: http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/PPP_Release_National_720.pdf