Romney's Health Care Plan Freaks Out Utah Republicans

Few states can claim to be as uniformly conservative as Utah, where many Mormon residents consider Mitt Romney a native son. (Romney claimed a whopping 93 percent of the GOP primary vote here.) But even Utahns appear to be deeply worried about the impact of proposals by Romney and his running mate Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to make deep cuts in Medicare and Medicaid.

Last Thursday night, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was in Salt Lake City to campaign for Mia Love, the African American mayor of Saratoga Springs and tea party darling who's trying to knock off the state's only Democratic House member, Jim Matheson. At an open-air amphitheater in West Valley City McCain and Love held a town hall meeting attended by about 250 people. There they were peppered with questions by people who identified themselves as loyal Republicans but were seriously concerned that the Romney-Ryan proposals would make life harder for them. Ironically, Love and McCain attempted to quell their supporters' concerns by offering up proposals that have already been implemented—by President Barack Obama.

One woman took issue with the Ryan-Romney Medicare plan, which would shift much of the cost of health care onto seniors by turning it into a voucher program. Ryan and Romney insist that none of those changes would affect anyone over 55. The woman told McCain that she was under 55, and that she has been diagnosed with breast cancer. She was very concerned that she would not be able to get affordable insurance or Medicare under Romney's vision of the government health care plan.

Another woman, Jessica Kerr, the mother of a child with autism, said, "I know you say we've got to cut, cut, cut. I'm concerned with the cuts to the disabled and Medicare and Medicaid." Kerr, who identified herself as a loyal Republican, told the story of being on a waiting list now for four years to get medical assistance for her disabled child and finding her concerns falling on deaf ears of the state legislators. Love, who has supported the Ryan plan to cut $1.5 trillion out of the Medicaid budget (pdf) over the next decade and drop between 14 and 27 million people from the program, responded, "Anyone who has said to you or anyone else that I'm going to pull the rug out from under you…is absolutely lying to you."

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/08/utah-mia-love-obamacare-romney