Romney Needs Better Answer on Health Care Reform
COMMENTARY | Recently former Mass Gov. Mitt Romney sat down to an interview with Fox News' Bret Baier. Afterward, Romney expressed his displeasure at what he felt was the aggressive nature of the questioning, which he said was uncalled for, CNS News reports.
Romney was particularly miffed over questions about Romneycare, his version of health care reform passed in Massachusetts when he was governor. He kept the line that he has been hewing to for most of the campaign, that Romneycare was good for Massachusetts but not necessarily for the nation as a whole. This may have to do with the political culture of deep, blue-state Massachusetts than any unique healthcare needs in the state Romney once governed.
Romney's line might be defensible if Romneycare. But as Reason Magazine points out, Romneycare has developed a variety of problems. Wait times for health care treatment are rising. Cost overruns for the system are rising. More and more physicians are declining to see new patients. Emergency rooms are still clogged with patients. The rate people who have health insurance has risen from already robust 90 percent to 95 percent. This has come at a great cost in government subsidies.
Romney was also irritated by Baier's probing over his various changes in positions over the years.
The best thing that could happen to Romney would be for him to be beat for the Republican nomination, likely as things stand now by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. If he finds the probing questions of a relatively friendly reporter from Fox News an irritant, one can only imagine how he is going to react to less friendly reporters. And that does not even take into account what Gingrich or Barack Obama, should Romney pull out the nomination, would do to him in a debate.
The problem is that Romneycare is a running sore that is inflaming antipathy over the idea of a Romney presidency. It was the model for national health care, or as it is generally known as Obamacare. Voters who find the very idea of health care reform anathema are not going to give Romney a pass unless he comes up with a better answer and learns to deliver it in a calm manner.
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Published by Mark Whittington
Mark R. Whittington is a writer residing in Houston, Texas. He is the author of The Last Moonwalker, Children of Apollo, Dark Sanction, and Nocturne. He has written numerous articles, some for the Washington... View profile
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1 Comments
Post a CommentRomneycare was developed from an idea by the conservative Heritage Foundation. The idea was that there would no "free riders" in the system, as there is now (via hospital emergency room visits that are not paid for, the cost of which is passed on to other healthcare consumers). Mitt sure does a lousy job defending his plan, doesn't he?