Romney Wants to Repeal Obamacare

When Mitt Romney was governor of Massachusetts he came to the same conclusion about health care that Barack Obama has come to as president: More people need to be covered, and any solution should be based on the current system we have where most are covered by their employers (160 million).

Obama's health care overhaul, called the Affordable Care Act, has the power to expand coverage to the uninsured.  The coverage will come at a cost since many will require a subsidy based on their income level.  Medicaid, health insurance for the poor, will need to be expanded to cover those who have low income.

The constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act is currently being decided by the Supreme Court who will issue a judgment on the law this week.  The most controversial aspect of the law is the individual mandate that requires every person in the country to buy coverage by 2014 or face a penalty.

The mandate that Mitt Romney approved in Massachusetts must not be good enough for other states since he does not support a mandate coming from the federal government.  Why would Romney support a local mandate but not a national one?  As a person who understands budgets, how does he  believe a health care system is supposed to work when individuals are buying coverage just before they need to use it?  The same moral hazard applies nationally as it does locally.

If the court favors the bulk of the Affordable Care Act but decides to strike down the mandate what we are left with is a way to cover everyone but with skyrocketing insurance premiums.  John Q. Citizen will be able to purchase insurance with pre-existing medical conditions just prior to an illness and then dump it after he is healed.  The premiums paid by the healthiest people will not be collected because they will not be forced to purchase it.

Those who disagree with the federal government's ability to require citizens to purchase something need to think about the kinds of things we are forced to buy.  I will use one simple example - the state mandate to purchase auto insurance.  How comfortable would you feel driving down the road if only half the people driving by you had coverage?

I disagree with both Obama's and Romney's solutions to the health care problem, but at least let's get real about the kind of problems we face, and let's start hearing some real, long-term solutions to fix health care.