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By Amanda Terkel and Sam Stein
WASHINGTON -- Downplaying the need for the government to ensure that every person has health insurance, Mitt Romney on Sunday suggested that emergency room care suffices as a substitute for the uninsured.
"Well, we do provide care for people who don't have insurance," he said in an interview with Scott Pelley of CBS's "60 Minutes" that aired Sunday night. "If someone has a heart attack, they don't sit in their apartment 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."
This constitutes a dramatic reversal in position for Romney, who passed a universal health care law in Massachusetts, in part, to eliminate the costs incurred when the uninsured show up in emergency rooms for care. Indeed, in both his book and in high-profile interviews during the campaign, Romney has touted his achievement in stamping out these inefficiencies while arguing that the same thing should be done at the national level.
And while Romney refused to agree on Sunday that the government's role is to ensure that every American has health care, he has endorsed such an idea in the past.
When asked in a March 2010 interview on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" whether he believes in universal coverage, Romney said, "Oh, sure."
"Look, 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, particularly if they are people who have sufficient means to pay their own way," he said.
And in a 2007 interview with Glenn Beck, Romney called the fact that people without insurance were able to get "free care" in emergency rooms "a form of socialism."
"When they show up at the hospital, they get care. They get free care paid for by you and me. If that's not a form of socialism, I don't know what is," he said at the time. "So my plan did something quite different. It said, you know what? If people can afford to buy insurance ... or if they can pay their own way, then they either buy that insurance or pay their own way, but they no longer look to government to hand out free care. And that, in my opinion, is ultimate conservativism."
Getting rid of high numbers of inefficient emergency room visits was actually a key goal of Romney's health care reform in Massachusetts, as he noted in his book "No Apology":
After about a year of looking at data -- and not making much progress -- we had a collective epiphany of sorts, an obvious one, as important observations often are: the people in Massachusetts who didn't have health insurance were, in fact, already receiving health care. Under federal law, hospitals had to stabilize and treat people who arrived at their emergency rooms with acute conditions. And our state's hospitals were offering even more assistance than the federal government required. That meant that someone was already paying for the cost of treating people who didn't have health insurance. If we could get our hands on that money, and therefore redirect it to help the uninsured buy insurance instead and obtain treatment in the way that the vast majority of individuals did -- before acute conditions developed -- the cost of insuring everyone in the state might not be as expensive as I had feared.
More w/Videos: Mitt Romney, On 60 Minutes, Cites Emergency Room As Health Care Option For Uninsured
Is Romney insane? Seriously? He doesn't seem to have a consistent position on anything. His inconsistent reasoning and flip-flopping positions on health care are absolutely bizarre.
By Amanda Terkel and Sam Stein
WASHINGTON -- Downplaying the need for the government to ensure that every person has health insurance, Mitt Romney on Sunday suggested that emergency room care suffices as a substitute for the uninsured.
"Well, we do provide care for people who don't have insurance," he said in an interview with Scott Pelley of CBS's "60 Minutes" that aired Sunday night. "If someone has a heart attack, they don't sit in their apartment 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."
This constitutes a dramatic reversal in position for Romney, who passed a universal health care law in Massachusetts, in part, to eliminate the costs incurred when the uninsured show up in emergency rooms for care. Indeed, in both his book and in high-profile interviews during the campaign, Romney has touted his achievement in stamping out these inefficiencies while arguing that the same thing should be done at the national level.
And while Romney refused to agree on Sunday that the government's role is to ensure that every American has health care, he has endorsed such an idea in the past.
When asked in a March 2010 interview on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" whether he believes in universal coverage, Romney said, "Oh, sure."
"Look, 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, particularly if they are people who have sufficient means to pay their own way," he said.
And in a 2007 interview with Glenn Beck, Romney called the fact that people without insurance were able to get "free care" in emergency rooms "a form of socialism."
"When they show up at the hospital, they get care. They get free care paid for by you and me. If that's not a form of socialism, I don't know what is," he said at the time. "So my plan did something quite different. It said, you know what? If people can afford to buy insurance ... or if they can pay their own way, then they either buy that insurance or pay their own way, but they no longer look to government to hand out free care. And that, in my opinion, is ultimate conservativism."
Getting rid of high numbers of inefficient emergency room visits was actually a key goal of Romney's health care reform in Massachusetts, as he noted in his book "No Apology":
After about a year of looking at data -- and not making much progress -- we had a collective epiphany of sorts, an obvious one, as important observations often are: the people in Massachusetts who didn't have health insurance were, in fact, already receiving health care. Under federal law, hospitals had to stabilize and treat people who arrived at their emergency rooms with acute conditions. And our state's hospitals were offering even more assistance than the federal government required. That meant that someone was already paying for the cost of treating people who didn't have health insurance. If we could get our hands on that money, and therefore redirect it to help the uninsured buy insurance instead and obtain treatment in the way that the vast majority of individuals did -- before acute conditions developed -- the cost of insuring everyone in the state might not be as expensive as I had feared.
More w/Videos: Mitt Romney, On 60 Minutes, Cites Emergency Room As Health Care Option For Uninsured
So.....Massachusetts has the model that Obama used?
Wanna see how it's working?
More people are seeking care in hospital emergency rooms, and the cost of caring for ER patients has soared 17 percent over two years, despite efforts to direct patients with nonurgent problems to primary care doctors instead, according to new state data. Visits to Massachusetts emergency rooms grew 7 percent between 2005 and 2007, to 2,469,295 visits.
ER visits, costs in Mass. climb - The Boston Globe
Comments made by Mitt Romney on Sunday night to CBS News reveal again, in stark relief, how fully hes abandoned the basic tenets of the health care reform law he enacted in Massachusetts.
The guy has come completely full circle, says Jonathan Gruber, a professor at MIT who advised Romney on the Massachusetts law and has expressed his dismay about Romneys shift in several public fora.
Romney has not always believed that emergency rooms are the best route for the uninsured. Back in 2008, Romney decried uninsured emergency room visits as free riding, declaring, If somebody could afford insurance, they should either buy the insurance or pay their own way. They dont have to buy insurance if they dont want to, but pay their own way. But they shouldnt be allowed to just show up at the hospital and say, somebody else should pay for me. According to Jonathan Gruber, a close adviser and architect for Romneys Massachusetts health care law, overcoming this free-rider dilemma was at the heart of Romneycare. The guy has come completely full circle, Gruber said.
By Amanda Terkel and Sam Stein
WASHINGTON -- Downplaying the need for the government to ensure that every person has health insurance, Mitt Romney on Sunday suggested that emergency room care suffices as a substitute for the uninsured.
"Well, we do provide care for people who don't have insurance," he said in an interview with Scott Pelley of CBS's "60 Minutes" that aired Sunday night. "If someone has a heart attack, they don't sit in their apartment 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."
This constitutes a dramatic reversal in position for Romney, who passed a universal health care law in Massachusetts, in part, to eliminate the costs incurred when the uninsured show up in emergency rooms for care. Indeed, in both his book and in high-profile interviews during the campaign, Romney has touted his achievement in stamping out these inefficiencies while arguing that the same thing should be done at the national level.
And while Romney refused to agree on Sunday that the government's role is to ensure that every American has health care, he has endorsed such an idea in the past.
When asked in a March 2010 interview on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" whether he believes in universal coverage, Romney said, "Oh, sure."
"Look, 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, particularly if they are people who have sufficient means to pay their own way," he said.
And in a 2007 interview with Glenn Beck, Romney called the fact that people without insurance were able to get "free care" in emergency rooms "a form of socialism."
"When they show up at the hospital, they get care. They get free care paid for by you and me. If that's not a form of socialism, I don't know what is," he said at the time. "So my plan did something quite different. It said, you know what? If people can afford to buy insurance ... or if they can pay their own way, then they either buy that insurance or pay their own way, but they no longer look to government to hand out free care. And that, in my opinion, is ultimate conservativism."
Getting rid of high numbers of inefficient emergency room visits was actually a key goal of Romney's health care reform in Massachusetts, as he noted in his book "No Apology":
After about a year of looking at data -- and not making much progress -- we had a collective epiphany of sorts, an obvious one, as important observations often are: the people in Massachusetts who didn't have health insurance were, in fact, already receiving health care. Under federal law, hospitals had to stabilize and treat people who arrived at their emergency rooms with acute conditions. And our state's hospitals were offering even more assistance than the federal government required. That meant that someone was already paying for the cost of treating people who didn't have health insurance. If we could get our hands on that money, and therefore redirect it to help the uninsured buy insurance instead and obtain treatment in the way that the vast majority of individuals did -- before acute conditions developed -- the cost of insuring everyone in the state might not be as expensive as I had feared.
More w/Videos: Mitt Romney, On 60 Minutes, Cites Emergency Room As Health Care Option For Uninsured
Why is it wrong for him to say this as he's a conservative. He wants people to all have personal responsibility.
Fiscal conservatives really do believe in people paying their own ways.
So.....Massachusetts has the model that Obama used?
Wanna see how it's working?
More people are seeking care in hospital emergency rooms, and the cost of caring for ER patients has soared 17 percent over two years, despite efforts to direct patients with nonurgent problems to primary care doctors instead, according to new state data. Visits to Massachusetts emergency rooms grew 7 percent between 2005 and 2007, to 2,469,295 visits.
ER visits, costs in Mass. climb - The Boston Globe
What floors me is how any sane individual actually believes that there is something called "free healthcare"?
This is insane. It costs. Health care costs massively. We pay 5% right across the board federally.
This goes into a giant pool of cash that gets redistributed to the provinces who then spoon it out. And aye carumba you have morons who don't know how to distribute the cash.
I'm fighting this for a two tier system like France. I know, don't bazooka barf here but they really do have a fabulous two tier system where everyone gets more bang for their buck.
Your idiots and "Obamacare" is a disaster waiting to happen.
If Romney hoped to use his '60 Minutes' profile to redeem himself after his '47 percent' smear, his performance was an epic #FAIL.
It isn't the government's job to take care of you. Time to show some personal responablity America!
Mitt Romney is a man that earned it!
It isn't the government's job to take care of you. Time to show some personal responablity America!
Mitt Romney is a man that earned it!
I'm 65, and I haven't seen it all, but Romney is by far the most fucked up presidential candidate in my lifetime so far.
It isn't the government's job to take care of you. Time to show some personal responablity America!
Mitt Romney is a man that earned it!
Before he "earned" it. He "inherited" it. Then he earned it by hurting a lot of people. Republicans, such as yourself, admire that.
Hey, were you in the Las Vegas audience shouting "Let him die"?
It isn't the government's job to take care of you. Time to show some personal responablity America!
Mitt Romney is a man that earned it!
Before he "earned" it. He "inherited" it. Then he earned it by hurting a lot of people. Republicans, such as yourself, admire that.
Hey, were you in the Las Vegas audience shouting "Let him die"?
No, that was me.
Your just jealous because your monthly welfare check isn't as big as the hole in your head.
Mitt gave his inheritance away, but you knew that.
You are a liar, but we know that.
So.....Massachusetts has the model that Obama used?
Wanna see how it's working?
More people are seeking care in hospital emergency rooms, and the cost of caring for ER patients has soared 17 percent over two years, despite efforts to direct patients with nonurgent problems to primary care doctors instead, according to new state data. Visits to Massachusetts emergency rooms grew 7 percent between 2005 and 2007, to 2,469,295 visits.
ER visits, costs in Mass. climb - The Boston Globe
What floors me is how any sane individual actually believes that there is something called "free healthcare"?
This is insane. It costs. Health care costs massively. We pay 5% right across the board federally.
This goes into a giant pool of cash that gets redistributed to the provinces who then spoon it out. And aye carumba you have morons who don't know how to distribute the cash.
I'm fighting this for a two tier system like France. I know, don't bazooka barf here but they really do have a fabulous two tier system where everyone gets more bang for their buck.
Your idiots and "Obamacare" is a disaster waiting to happen.
I'm 65, and I haven't seen it all, but Romney is by far the most fucked up presidential candidate in my lifetime so far.
It isn't the government's job to take care of you. Time to show some personal responablity America!
Mitt Romney is a man that earned it!
Before he "earned" it. He "inherited" it. Then he earned it by hurting a lot of people. Republicans, such as yourself, admire that.
Hey, were you in the Las Vegas audience shouting "Let him die"?
No, that was me.
Your just jealous because your monthly welfare check isn't as big as the hole in your head.
Mitt gave his inheritance away, but you knew that.
You are a liar, but we know that.
