Romney’s health-care dither
By Eugene Robinson,
I’m trying to figure out just where Mitt Romney stands on health-care reform. Obviously, so is Mitt Romney.In an interview broadcast Sunday on “Meet the Press,” I thought I heard Romney say he liked some aspects of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act and would keep those provisions in place. Impossible, right? Romney’s position all year has been that if he’s elected, he’ll begin repealing Obamacare on Day One. My ears must have deceived me.
But when I checked the transcript, here’s what I found:
“MR. ROMNEY: Well, I’m not getting rid of all of health-care reform. Of course, there are a number of things that I like in health-care reform that I’m going to put in place. One is to make sure that those with preexisting conditions can get coverage. Two is to assure that the marketplace allows for individuals to have policies that cover their — their family up to whatever age they might like. I also want individuals to be able to buy insurance, health insurance, on their own as opposed to only being able to get it on a tax-advantaged basis through their company.”
So Romney wants to repeal Obamacare and replace it with Obamacare, or at least the consumer-friendly parts of Obamacare that Romney knows are popular. What he would leave out is the part he knows is unpopular: the individual mandate that compels some Americans to obtain health insurance or pay a fine.
But as Romney knows, it’s the individual mandate that makes the other benefits possible by preventing young, healthy people from gaming the system. They would just wait to purchase insurance until they got sick, knowing they couldn’t be turned down because of the “preexisting conditions” measure.
Romney is familiar with the problem of these so-called free-riders because he solved it when he was governor of Massachusetts. With an individual mandate.
To review, Romney was for Obamacare before he was against it before he was for it again, except the keystone element that makes the rest of Obamacare work, which he developed and implemented but steadfastly opposes.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/eugene-robinson-romneys-health-care-dither/2012/09/10/6e9044e4-fb67-11e1-8adc-499661afe377_print.html
Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2012
Obama vs. Romney: A Detailed Analysis of Mitt Romney’s Health Care Reform Plan
Let’s take a look at Mitt Romney’s Health Care plan using his own outline ("Mitt’s Plan") on his website.
Romney's approach to health care reform summarized:
Romney's approach to health care reform summarized:
- "Kill Obamacare" - There seems to be no chance Romney would try to fix the Affordable Care Act––he would repeal all of it.
- No new federal health insurance reform law - There is no indication from his policy outline that he would try to replace the health care reform law for those under age-65 ("Obamacare") with a new federal law--his emphasis would be on making it easier for the states to tackle the issue as he did in Massachusetts.
- Small incremental steps - His approach for health insurance reform for those under age-65 relies on relatively small incremental market ideas when compared to the Democrats big Affordable Care Act--tort reform, association purchasing pools, insurance portability, more information technology, greater tax deductibility of insurance, purchasing insurance across state lines, more HSA flexibility.
- Getting the federal government out of the Medicaid program - He would fundamentally change Medicaid by putting the states entirely in control of it and capping the annual federal contribution--"block-granting."
- Big changes for Medicare - Romney offers a fundamental reform for Medicare beginning for those who retire in ten years by creating a more robust private Medicare market and giving seniors a defined contribution premium support to pay for it.
- http://healthpolicyandmarket.blogspot.com/2012/09/a-detailed-analysis-of-mitt-romneys.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+HealthCarePolicyAndMarketplaceBlog+%28Health+Care+Policy+and+Marketplace+Blog%29
Republican lawmakers should have known better.
By David Farmer - Bangor Daily News - September 5, 2012
Despite dire warnings and well-documented evidence from around the country, Republicans pushed through a major overhaul of health insurance in Maine on the hope – and little else – that it might reduce costs for consumers.
Despite dire warnings and well-documented evidence from around the country, Republicans pushed through a major overhaul of health insurance in Maine on the hope – and little else – that it might reduce costs for consumers.
Their blind faith has cost them credibility and has cost their constituents millions of dollars, while weakening consumer protections for all of us.
It’s not clear that most members of the Republican majority were well-informed enough to even understand what they were voting on when Gov. Paul LePage and other GOP leaders jammed through a partisan bill changing health insurance consumer protections.
At the time, a number of members of the Legislature had no idea about the impact the legislation would have or even what was in the law.
When asked about the legislation, right before the vote, Republican representatives showed little understanding about what was being proposed and what the impacts would likely be.
Advocate groups, including Consumers for Affordable Health Care, Maine Equal Justice Partners, the American Cancer Society and many others tried to warn them. But the warnings went unheard.
Driven by party loyalty, the Republicans in the Legislature were content to trust but never verify.
Now the evidence is in, and the facts are terrible.
http://davidfarmer.bangordailynews.com/2012/09/05/legislation/small-businesses-elderly-have-been-thrown-to-the-insurance-wolves/#print
http://davidfarmer.bangordailynews.com/2012/09/05/legislation/small-businesses-elderly-have-been-thrown-to-the-insurance-wolves/#print
Maine Voices: Positive changes to health insurance law unfairly criticized
A report by a left-wing lobbying group takes good news and casts it in a bad light.
By LES FOSSEL
AUGUSTA — What a difference two years make. Here in Maine, we are seeing hopeful signs that things are perking up thanks to reforms enacted by the Legislature. These reforms include tax relief, regulatory fairness, reforms to welfare and public pensions and elimination of fraud and waste at taxpayer-funded agencies.
That makes it all the more puzzling that special interest groups that once ran on "hope and change" now seem oblivious to positive developments that are benefiting Maine families and small businesses.
Instead, they are actively seeking to undermine these positive steps because we haven't yet achieved total success, even though these reforms have not even been fully implemented.
A perfect storm of propaganda on health insurance reform
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TweetPosted Sept. 10, 2012, at 12:04 p.m.
Last modified Sept. 10, 2012, at 12:40 p.m.
Last modified Sept. 10, 2012, at 12:40 p.m.
A phony report from a phony consumer group, a misleading OpEd by a left-wing legislator and a dose of extreme demagoguery from a BDN columnist have created a well-orchestrated perfect storm of propaganda. But no one should be buying it.
This onslaught of misinformation is meant to discredit the recent health insurance reform passed by the Republican-led 125th Legislature. Although rate hikes under the new Public Law 90 for most Mainers are the smallest in years (many are even seeing reductions), this trio and their comrades are hellbent on sending a different message.
Their goal is to go back to the days of Dirigo Health, extreme health care and health insurance regulations and more Mainers on medical welfare.
The tempest-in-a-teapot started with a “report” from the well-funded, pro-government-health-care lobbying group, “Consumers for Affordable Healthcare.” Their “report” — although few could seriously call it that — cherry-picked numbers, ignored positive new trends and is basically spin.
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