WASHINGTON -- The immediate reaction to Mitt Romney's 2009 USA Today op-ed on health care reform has zeroed in on his suggestion that President Barack Obama pursue an individual mandate. But that focus misses a broader problem the op-ed creates for the former Massachusetts governor.
Romney has consistently defended his health care reform effort in Massachusetts on 10th Amendment grounds, insisting that it was merely "a state solution to a state problem." The trouble with the president's plan, Romney has argued, is not that its policy particulars -- the individual mandate to buy health insurance, the coverage subsidies, the Medicaid expansion -- were based on the Massachusetts plan, but rather that it "was a power grab by the federal government to put in place a one-size-fits-all plan across the nation."
But Romney's op-ed, published during the heat of the health care debate and recently unearthed by BuzzFeed, is squarely on the side of health care reform being driven by the federal government. In fact, the national plan that Romney sketched out as acceptable to conservatives closely resembles the one that Obama ultimately signed into law.
Romney, after touting the success of the Massachusetts plan in the op-ed, noted that the main problem facing health care generally is soaring inflation and that only the federal government can rein it in. "Here is where the federal government can do something we could not: Take steps to stop or slow medical inflation," he wrote.
Simply believing that the federal government could take action to slow medical cost inflation is not evidence of hypocrisy, of course. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), for instance, has put forth a plan that is nothing like Obama's and that he believes would ultimately lower health care costs. Romney has since embraced the basic contours of the Ryan plan. But Romney's Massachusetts law and Ryan's proposal are as divorced from each other as possible, and there's no indication that Romney was referring to a Ryan-type system in his 2009 op-ed.
After all, MIT economics professor Jonathan Gruber, a key policy architect behind both the federal and Massachusetts plans, famously compared them by saying "they're the same f***ing bill."
Indeed, Romney said in 2009 that Republicans would back the federal reform effort -- under a few conditions.
"Republicans will join with the Democrats if the president abandons his government insurance plan, if he endeavors to craft a plan that does not burden the nation with greater debt, if he broadens his scope to reduce health costs for all Americans, and if he is willing to devote the rigorous effort, requisite time and bipartisan process that health care reform deserves," he wrote in the final paragraph of his op-ed.
Nobody could accuse the president of not spending the "requisite time," with 14 months devoted to the process.
As for that "bipartisan process," the White House and Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) worked endlessly with the bipartisan Gang of Six, threatening to drag down the entire bill as they negotiated for months. Ultimately, the only Republican who voted for the bill was Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME), and she did so only in the Finance Committee, opposing it on final passage.
As for the "government insurance plan," also known as the public option, Obama discarded that. The final bill did not increase the debt according to the Congressional Budget Office. And it will reduce "health care costs for all Americans" not just by providing subsidies but also by rewarding doctors and hospitals for healthy outcomes in general, rather than for a total number of procedures, just as Romney has repeatedly advocated.
The problem for Romney is that the federal-state distinction was the only real way he had of differentiating what he did from what the president has done. His own op-ed suggesting a bipartisan federal health care approach undermines any attempt to make that distinction between now and November.
Follow Ryan Grim on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ryangrim
Corbin Hiar: Money for Love? Romney Campaign Gives Over $1.7 Million to Republicans
 |
 |
|
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Electoral Votes (270 to win) |
332 | 206 |
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Total | 65,899,660 | 60,932,152 |
| Percent | 51.1% | 47.2% |
| Democrats* | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Current Senate | 53 | 47 |
| Seats gained or lost | +2 | -2 |
| New Total | 55 | 45 |
| Democrats | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Seats won | 201 | 234 |
|
|
|
|
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mitt Romney |
Rick Santorum |
Newt Gingrich |
Ron Paul |
|
|
N.D.
100% rpt. |
23.7 | 39.7 | 8.5 | 28.1 |
|
Ga.
100% rpt. |
25.9 | 19.6 | 47.2 | 6.6 |
|
Va.
100% rpt. |
59.5 | — | — | 40.5 |
|
Vt.
100% rpt. |
39.7 | 23.7 | 8.2 | 25.5 |
|
Ohio
100% rpt. |
37.9 | 37.1 | 14.6 | 9.2 |
|
Tenn.
100% rpt. |
28.1 | 37.2 | 23.9 | 9.0 |
|
Okla.
100% rpt. |
28.0 | 33.8 | 27.5 | 9.6 |
|
Mass.
100% rpt. |
72.2 | 12.0 | 4.6 | 9.5 |
|
Alaska
100% rpt. |
32.4 | 29.2 | 14.1 | 24.0 |
|
Idaho
100% rpt. |
61.6 | 18.2 | 2.1 | 18.1 |
353 delegates have been allocated so far. 419 are up for grabs tonight. 1,114 are needed to win the nomination. Related story »
| Mitt Romney |
Rick Santorum |
Newt Gingrich |
Ron Paul |
|
| Before March 6 |
203 | 92 | 33 | 25 |
| Super Tuesday |
212 | 86 | 74 | 21 |
New Total |
415 | 178 | 107 | 46 |
http://americaneedsmitt.com/blog/obamacare-romneycare-truth/
How is it not "socialist" just because it's smaller?
why are you so upset that some people choose to disagree with you? if you don't like our government, make sure you don't take advantage of any benefits from it. but, of course, you are likely to be one of "those" who want to pick and choose for other people what parts of government are good and what parts are not good. of courese, ou can always leave if you are so upset and paranoid about the EEEEEEVIL GOVERNMENT! LOL
IT’S THE PRICE
This comment is based on Ezra Klein, March 4, 2012, W. Post; Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Gerard F Anderson, Uwe E Reinhardt, Peter S Hussey, Varduhi Petrosyan, New England Journal of Medicine, Health Affairs (2003) Volume: 22, Issue: 3, Publisher: Health Affairs, Pages: 89-105
When you look at the cost of almost any medical procedure performed in the U.S., you find that typical and frequent ones cost from 25 to 35 percent more than other advanced industrial countries. The evidence also shows that on average the U.S. citizen does not utilize medical care anymore than the citizens of those other nations. In terms of quality and results, the U.S. ranks slightly below the others.
What accounts for the huge price differential? It appears that only the U.S. does not have government mechanisms to put a lid on costs.
A glaring example of the politically imposed costs so frequently seen in the U.S. is that Congress refused to permit Medicare, Medicaid and the V.A. to negotiate drug prices with “big pharmacy”.
The tragedy of this is that the comparative overcharge imposed by the medical industry is draining billions of dollars from things like education and food inspection, national defense and a host of other vital programs while being, BY FAR, the leading cause of individual bankruptcies.
"The trees are the right height" - Willard Romney
This may be hard to imagine, but Rush Limbaugh is a private citizen...I don't want the government telling private citizens what they can and cannot say.
Expect a comment today.