COULTER DID NOT JUMP THE SHARK: Everything Coulter says about Romneycare and the mandate is factually true.
COULTER:
In 2007, when Romneycare became law, the federal government alone was already picking up the tab for 45.4 percent of all health care expenditures in the country.
Until Obamacare, mandatory private health insurance was considered the free-market alternative to the Democrats' piecemeal socialization of the entire medical industry.
In November 2004, for example, libertarian Ronald Bailey praised mandated private health insurance in Reason magazine, saying that it "could preserve and extend the advantages of a free market with a minimal amount of coercion."
A leading conservative think tank, The Heritage Foundation, helped design Romneycare, and its health care analyst, Bob Moffit, flew to Boston for the bill signing.
Romneycare was also supported by Regina Herzlinger, Harvard Business School professor and health policy analyst for the conservative Manhattan Institute. Herzlinger praised Romneycare for making consumers, not business or government, the primary purchasers of health care.
The state mandate makes people who can afford to pay for their own insurance buy it or pay for their healthcare. This is better than having third parties pay via taxes. And, it is consistent with conservative principles. Which is why The Heritage Foundation supported it - as did the Manhattan Institute.And Romneycare's 70 pages did not micromanage the healthcare industry like Obamacare's 2700 pages. And states are constitutionally permitted to do what Romneycare does. And Romney has said that healthcare is a state issue and that both medicare and medicaid should be blockgrants to the states. And all of this is consistent with conservative principles.
Coulter is right on the principles and the history.
I'll take her over all of the Newtnuts and Paultards.
She is a real conservative - unlike Newt or Paul.
And she is fearless: She speaks the truth to everyone - regardless of who might not like it.
I THINK STATES HAVE THE RIGHT TO DO WHAT MASSACHUSETTS DID.
(MARK LEVIN MUST AGREE BECAUSE HIS LANDMARK LEGAL FOUNDATION HAS NEVER CHALLENGED ROMNEYCARE IN COURT.)
OBAMACARE PREEMPTS THIS RIGHT.
PEOPLE WHO HATE OBAMACARE SHOULD VOTE FOR MITT BECAUSE OF ROMNEYCARE - AND HOW IT PROVES OBAMACARE IS OVER-REACHING BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT - AND NOT SHUN MITT BECAUSE OF IT.
The only way for any insurance company to survive is to have both high risk and low risk in the pool. This is an uncomfortable fact for conservatives.
ReplyDeleteThe young and healthy often opt out of coverage, thus removing the healthy from the insurance pool.
Private health insurance policies are rapidly becoming unaffordable for many, including those with serious and expensive pre-existing conditions. When people are forced to drop private coverage (and often divorce in the process, BTW), they end up on Medicaid. It's a vicious circle.
Some people have to choose between paying for insurance coverage and paying the mortgage, paying the heating bill, etc. No way can an individual or a couple afford health insurance when the premiums are 2/3 to 3/4 of income! Or more! In Mr. AOW's case, on June 1, his private coverage would have risen to 5/6 of his monthly SSDI check for catastrophic coverage with no prescription coverage -- except that he goes on Medicare. In just a little over two years, Mr. AOW's private coverage went from 1/4 of his income to 5/6 of his income. Never mind that Mr. AOW paid into the health insurance industry from age 21, long before an pre-existing conditions came along.
With the wave of aging Baby Boomers coming along, something has to be done about healthcare costs! The individual mandate, particularly required by the federal level, is reprehensible to conservatives. Frankly, I can see no other solution to this mess other than states imposing the individual mandate.
we need also to breakdown the states' often too complicated requirements for insurance so there is more national competition as in car insurnce
ReplyDeleteYou have courage. Nice post.
ReplyDeleteReliapundit,
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely!