How Romneycare is NOT Obamacare

[formerlurker]

Please read the entire article (I wish I could post the entire article here).  I have been saying this since the last presidential election, and went toe to toe with the asshats at FR over this.    Romney's plan was a good one - and one that was embraced by the super conservative Heritage Foundation as solid.   What it morphed into is nothing that he envisioned (although I agree, and have said previously he should have known the super majority in the state house would mess this up).   

The answer to the question “Wasn’t Romneycare exactly the same thing as Obamacare?” is, to quote Nancy Pelosi, “Are you serious?” The Massachusetts law contained an individual mandate (which states, unlike the federal government, are allowed to impose). But it did not consist of 2,700 pages of new regulations; 159 new boards and commissions; more than $500 billion in new taxes (and counting); the Independent Payment Advisory Board, a rationing board whose decisions are unreviewable by the courts and practically untouchable by Congress itself; restrictions on religious liberty; Medicare cuts; affirmative-action mandates for medical and dental schools; huge new authority over one-seventh of the U.S. economy for the secretary of health and human services, and open-ended regulations of the way doctors and others perform their jobs.

Beyond that, a glance at the history of Romneycare in Massachusetts shows that Romney’s instincts and initiatives were for free-market reforms. An 85 percent Democratic legislature thwarted his best efforts, and a Democratic successor as governor twisted the law’s trajectory dramatically.

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/304834/what-romney-needs-say-about-romneycare-mona-charen

[Kyle Ricky]

Romneycare was 78 pages long. Obamacare is 2700 pages because 9/10ths of it is the bribes and kick backs they gave people to vote for it.

[jendf]

Please read the entire article (I wish I could post the entire article here).  I have been saying this since the last presidential election, and went toe to toe with the asshats at FR over this.    Romney's plan was a good one - and one that was embraced by the super conservative Heritage Foundation as solid.   What it morphed into is nothing that he envisioned (although I agree, and have said previously he should have known the super majority in the state house would mess this up).   

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/304834/what-romney-needs-say-about-romneycare-mona-charen

Thank you for posting this! I've seen the "Romneycare is just Obamacare Light" argument in a lot of comment sections and I didn't feel confident enough to refute them because I just didn't know all that much about Romneycare. Appreciate the insight.

[Jasonw560]

Same here. Just what I needed to shut some people up about it.

[Ralph Wiggum]

The problem is that no matter what, Romney will get tagged with supporting it.

[Eupher]

The problem is that no matter what, Romney will get tagged with supporting it.

Yep, that's the political reality.