by Paul Krugman from "The New York Times" news journal [http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/15/opinion/krugman-death-by-ideology.html?_r=0]:
Mitt Romney doesn’t see dead people. But that’s only because he doesn’t want to see them; if he did, he’d have to acknowledge the ugly reality of what will happen if he and Paul Ryan get their way on health care.
Last week, speaking to The Columbus Dispatch, Mr. Romney declared that nobody in America dies because he or she is uninsured: “We don’t have people that become ill, who die in their apartment because they don’t have insurance.” This followed on an earlier remark by Mr. Romney — echoing an infamous statement by none other than George W. Bush — in which he insisted that emergency rooms provide essential health care to the uninsured.
These are remarkable statements. They clearly demonstrate that Mr. Romney has no idea what life (and death) are like for those less fortunate than himself.
Even the idea that everyone gets urgent care when needed from emergency rooms is false. Yes, hospitals are required by law to treat people in dire need, whether or not they can pay. But that care isn’t free — on the contrary, if you go to an emergency room you will be billed, and the size of that bill can be shockingly high. Some people can’t or won’t pay, but fear of huge bills can deter the uninsured from visiting the emergency room even when they should. And sometimes they die as a result.
More important, going to the emergency room when you’re very sick is no substitute for regular care, especially if you have chronic health problems. When such problems are left untreated — as they often are among uninsured Americans — a trip to the emergency room can all too easily come too late to save a life.
So the reality, to which Mr. Romney is somehow blind, is that many people in America really do die every year because they don’t have health insurance.
How many deaths are we talking about? That’s not an easy question to answer, and conservatives love to cite the handful of studies that fail to find clear evidence that insurance saves lives. The overwhelming evidence, however, is that insurance is indeed a lifesaver, and lack of insurance a killer. For example, states that expand their Medicaid coverage, and hence provide health insurance to more people, consistently show a significant drop in mortality compared with neighboring states that don’t expand coverage.
And surely the fact that the United States is the only major advanced nation without some form of universal health care is at least part of the reason life expectancy is much lower in America than in Canada or Western Europe.
So there’s no real question that lack of insurance is responsible for thousands, and probably tens of thousands, of excess deaths of Americans each year. But that’s not a fact Mr. Romney wants to admit, because he and his running mate want to repeal Obamacare and slash funding for Medicaid — actions that would take insurance away from some 45 million nonelderly Americans, causing thousands of people to suffer premature death. And their longer-term plans to convert Medicare into Vouchercare would deprive many seniors of adequate coverage, too, leading to still more unnecessary mortality.
Oh, about the voucher thing: In his debate with Vice President Biden, Mr. Ryan was actually the first one to mention vouchers, attempting to rule the term out of bounds. Indeed, it’s apparently the party line on the right that anyone using the word “voucher” to describe a health policy in which you’re given a fixed sum to apply to health insurance is a liar, not to mention a big meanie.
Among the lying liars, then, is the guy who, in 2009, described the Ryan plan as a matter of “converting Medicare into a defined contribution sort of voucher system.” Oh, wait — that was Paul Ryan himself.
And what if the vouchers — for that’s what they are — turned out not to be large enough to pay for adequate insurance? Then those who couldn’t afford to top up the vouchers sufficiently — a group that would include many, and probably most, older Americans — would be left with inadequate insurance, insurance that exposed them to severe financial hardship if they got sick, sometimes left them unable to afford crucial care, and yes, sometimes led to their early death.
So let’s be brutally honest here. The Romney-Ryan position on health care is that many millions of Americans must be denied health insurance, and millions more deprived of the security Medicare now provides, in order to save money. At the same time, of course, Mr. Romney and Mr. Ryan are proposing trillions of dollars in tax cuts for the wealthy. So a literal description of their plan is that they want to expose many Americans to financial insecurity, and let some of them die, so that a handful of already wealthy people can have a higher after-tax income.
It’s not a pretty picture — and you can see why Mr. Romney chooses not to see it.
2012-10-11 "Romney in Central Ohio - Health care called ‘choice’; He tells ‘Dispatch’ those with pre-existing condition would have chance to get insurance" By Joe Vardon, Darrel Rowland and Joe Hallett from "Columbus Dispatch" news journal
[http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/10/11/health-care-called-choice.html]:
A Mitt Romney administration overhaul of President Barack Obama’s health-care law would provide those without insurance who have a pre-existing condition the opportunity to gain coverage, the Republican presidential nominee told The Dispatch yesterday.
Romney, in a meeting with The Dispatch’s editorial board, said those who currently don’t carry insurance would have a chance to make a “choice” to be covered without fear of being denied. But he didn’t specify how long Americans would have to make that choice, or what would happen to those who chose not to be covered and later fell sick.
Romney minimized the harm for Americans left without health insurance.
“We don’t have a setting across this country where if you don’t have insurance, we just say to you, ‘Tough luck, you’re going to die when you have your heart attack,’ ” he said as he offered more hints as to what he would put in place of “Obamacare,” which he has pledged to repeal.
“No, you go to the hospital, you get treated, you get care, and it’s paid for, either by charity, the government or by the hospital. We don’t have people that become ill, who die in their apartment because they don’t have insurance.”
He pointed out that federal law requires hospitals to treat those without health insurance — although hospital officials frequently say that drives up health-care costs.
Romney’s interview took place after a town-hall meeting at Ariel Corp. in front of several hundred people, including New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a fellow Republican. After visiting the Mount Vernon compressor manufacturer, Romney grabbed a bite at Bun’s Restaurant in Delaware and stopped by the Shelby County Fair in Sidney. About 9,000 people attended the latter event, according to the campaign.
During his 34-minute session with The Dispatch, Romney also reaffirmed his commitment to “pro-life” principles despite comments the day before that raised doubts about his consistency; maintained that he doesn’t care about risking a 2016 re-election loss by taking controversial stands as president; and said Ohio’s economy would be doing even better with a Republican president.
Romney has never released his full plan to replace the Affordable Care Act — a law that Obama has said was designed from the model Romney signed into law as governor of Massachusetts.
One of the most-popular components of Obama’s law is the provision that prohibits insurance companies from denying coverage to, or raising prices on, those with pre-existing health conditions.
“You have to deal with those people who are currently uninsured, and help them have the opportunity to have insurance,” said Romney, who favors letting states craft their own plans.
“But then once people have all had that opportunity to become insured, if someone chooses not to become insured, and waits for 10 or 20 years and then gets ill and then says ‘Now I want insurance,’ you could hardly say to an insurance company, ‘Oh, you must take this person now that they’re sick,’ or there’d literally be no reason to have insurance.
“It’d be the same thing as saying, ‘Look, you’re not required to have homeowners insurance, but if your home catches fire, then you can get insurance at that point.’ That wouldn’t make a lot of sense.”
Romney reaffirmed his opposition to abortion rights and denied that he is attempting to pivot to a more-moderate stance on the flash-point issue.
“I am pro-life, I’ll be a pro-life president,” he said, reiterating his support for regulating abortion at the state level and his intention to cut off federal funding for Planned Parenthood.
Romney’s commitment to the anti-abortion position was called into question by Democrats after he told the Des Moines Register on Tuesday that there “is no legislation with regards to abortion that I’m familiar with that would become part of my agenda.”
Democrats accused Romney of attempting to conceal his ardent anti-abortion-rights position in an attempt to win votes. Romney supported abortion rights when he was governor of Massachusetts but has opposed them as a presidential candidate.
Yesterday, he said: “I will take pro-life measures, but those happen to be executive-order and budget measures, as opposed to legislation, at least so far as I’m aware.”
Asked about the possibility of a constitutional amendment to overturn Roe v. Wade, Romney replied: “That’s not where America is now.”
Obama has turned down numerous entreaties to meet with The Dispatch’s editorial board and/or reporters covering the presidential campaign.
Romney and running mate Paul Ryan are scheduled to appear together on Friday afternoon on the Lancaster town square. On Saturday, Romney is to visit Portsmouth and Lebanon, while Ryan is slated to attend a college football game in Bowling Green, which is playing his alma mater, Miami University.
Earlier yesterday, the mother of a Navy SEAL killed in the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, asked Romney to stop speaking about her son on the campaign trail. Romney had been telling audiences — including those on Tuesday night in Cuyahoga Falls and yesterday in Mount Vernon — that he had met the SEAL, Glen Doherty, at a Christmas party and that his death “broke my heart.”
Barbara Doherty, Glen’s mother, told a media outlet that she didn’t want Romney to talk about her son: “I don’t trust Romney,” she said. “He shouldn’t make my son’s death part of his political agenda.”
Romney campaign spokesman Chris Maloney said the campaign will honor Doherty’s request: “Gov. Romney was inspired by the memory of meeting the courageous young man and had shared his personal story and that memory. We respect the wishes of Mrs. Doherty.”
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Comments:
Silverbear Heart (SilverbearHeart) -
Mitt Romney is hiding information from the American public.
"Exposing Romney" is an interview with Debbie McCord-Skousen - on Jeenyus Corner [http://mittromney2012potus.blogspot.com/2012/10/exposing-romney-interview-with-debbie.html]
Harassment by active Mormon Church members and people getting ready to leave the Mormon Church exacerbated the abuses inflected. Scott Romney, Ronna Romney McDaniel (the daughter of G. Scott Romney), Mitt's Michigan Financial bundler David T. Fischer, along with active Mormon Church members, Skousen's, are discussed on the blog and during the interview.
Romney's Bain Capital is under several investigations. One in New York on tax evasion, another is going on in Canada. John H. Meier has been contacted by Canadian authorities and notified US US authorities are wishing to interview him regarding William Gay and his son Robert on Hughes Corp. Meier's was a scientific adviser for Howard Hughes and worked on the reduction of nuclear arms, and limiting nuclear testing in Nevada.
Gay's are said to have stolen Billions of dollars from Hughes Medical some of the funds ending up at Bain Capital. And also an investigation in Washington on a Chinese business Romney is a partner in. Romney and Huawei [http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57527441/huawei-probed-for-security-espionage-risk/?tag=contentMain]. 60 Minutes did a segment on Huawei, the link is above.
It is hypocritical of Mike Rogers give an interviewed on his issue. Congressman Mike Rogers (the corrupt Brighton Michigan Republican and Romney water-carrier) is on CBS 60 minutes last night talking about Huawei the Chinese Company. Romney has a big interest in Huawei and Mike is going to lie through his teeth protecting himself and his fearless leader Mitt Romney.
Romney business interest was stealing American information. Is this a shock? Mitt Romney and Chinese Investments [http://mittromney2012potus.blogspot.com/2012/03/news-buzzed-this-week-with-news-of-mitt.html] for more on Romney corruption see: The Real Mitt Romney the Weather-Vane Candidate [http://mittromney2012potus.blogspot.com]
2012-09-24 "Romney: Uninsured have emergency rooms" by Rachel Weiner from "Washington Post" news journal
[http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/election-2012/wp/2012/09/24/romney-calls-emergency-room-a-health-care-option-for-uninsured/]:
In his interview with CBS News’ “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday night, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney pointed to emergency rooms as a form of health care for people without insurance.
“Well, we do provide care for people who don’t have insurance,” Romney told interviewer Scott Pelley. “If someone has a heart attack, they don’t sit in their apartment and — and die. We pick them up in an ambulance, and take them to the hospital, and give them care. And different states have different ways of providing for that care.”
"Romney On Governments Responsibility To Provide Healthcare For Uninsured" Video via the Huffington Post:
When Pelley pointed out that the ER is the most expensive form of health-care, Romney argued that he was talking about a variety of options that vary by state.
“Some provide that care through clinics, some provide that care through emergency rooms,” he said. In Massachusetts, Romney said, they had come up with a different solution — but he wouldn’t push universal care on other states.
Then-President George W. Bush made a similar comment in 2007, when threatening to veto an expansion of the federal Children’s Health Insurance Program [http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2007/07/20070710-6.html]. ”People have access to health care in America,” Bush told a Cleveland audience. “After all, you just go to an emergency room.”
But Romney’s position is a shift from 2010, when he told MSNBC that part of the impetus for the Massachusetts health-care law was to keep people out of the ER.
“It doesn’t make a lot of sense for us to have millions and millions of people who have no health insurance and yet who can go to the emergency room and get entirely free care for which they have no responsibility,” he said.
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