Romney distances self from Mass. health plan

Ooh, big surprise there....
http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/other/articles/2007/02/03/romney_distances_self_from_mass_health_plan/?page=1

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With signs emerging that his signature healthcare plan faces hurdles, former governor Mitt Romney has begun to distance himself from the new law and is suggesting that Democrats will be to blame if the plan falters.

Yesterday, after addressing a gathering of conservative lawmakers in Baltimore, Romney told reporters that he cannot be held responsible for decisions that Beacon Hill lawmakers make about the sweeping plan now that he is out of office.

"I hope they take action that makes it work even better than I could have thought of," said Romney, who is exploring a campaign for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination. "But if they take action that makes it unworkable, I'll point that out. I'm not going to sit on the sidelines and not have a comment to make."

At recent political appearances, Romney has subtly lowered expectations for the law he championed as governor. At the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire on Thursday, he warned that the Democrat-dominated Massachusetts Legislature may cause the collapse of a system he helped design.
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offered my professional help - but as I'm a not sponsored by the health insurance lobby actuary they were not interested.

The plan is a mess that will still cost the state a lot of money - and cost the Federal Gov a lot of extra Medicaid money.

It is not being designed as a transition step to single payer universal - which is where I would go - but is being set up as subsidized insurance policies on which the companies will make 15% per year, that 15% increasing each year at a 15% rate.

In any case the email rejecting my help was at least polite.

And shame on the actuaries who have sold their souls to corporate interests.

the nice words.

Wasn't this his bill that the legislature put into place? Wasn't he seen signing it surrounded by Dems including Kennedy? He sounds like he will wait and see if it all works the way it should and then he will take credit. Jeesh, if he wasn't away for almost 250 or so days in his final year in office, maybe he could have worked on making the bill better than ever.

This bill ain't perfect, but it gets us off off "ground zero" and headed in a better direction with Health Care.

Oh, and Romney sucks!

it is hard to reclaim his lost virtue.

The seduction of the Dark Side is powerful indeed!

NT

"I hope they take action that makes it work even better than I could have thought of, . . . But if they take action that makes it unworkable, I'll point that out. I'm not going to sit on the sidelines and not have a comment to make."

See the emerging pattern.

"It was a perfectly good plan until the Democrat's sabotaged the effort."

The age old "stabbed in the back" defense.

When his efforts to build the local GOP fell flat, he decided he didn't want
to be governor anymore and started touring the country trashing his adopted state.
Now he is running from the health plan he touted as a model just last week.

Mitt Romney is an empty suit. He lacks character even by low Republican standards.

health insurance co.'s. Most people I know here in Mass don't have health insurance because it is too expensive to begin with. (Not because it's not offered.) At $250- $280 per person per month, it's a bit steep. Think about all the families who will be adversely effected by this.
Grocery money will now have to be spent on health care, or working families cut back their hours so as not to be considered full time.

It's sad, and I don't think it was fully thought out. Yet again another corporate give away on the backs of the working class.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=158x11740

(needing serious) medical treatment, as I recall hearing on the radio

that plus it was the insurance lobbyists who were celebrating the law's passage

insurance you might as well fall into formation at the bankruptcy court. It's not just having coverage, it's having GOOD coverage. Bottom line: the insurance companies have to be taken out of the mix.

Romney is going nowhere, he's just a bloated bag of hot hydrogen just waiting for the Hindeburg treatment.

I still remember how his dad stood up and told the truth about being lied to about VIetman. And i STILL remember how the Whore Press destroyed his dad because his dad told the truth.

There is absolutely nothing to that "man." Nothing real. Nothing factual or true.

He will say anything -- or BE anything -- to any audience, at any time... if he thinks it's what they want to hear.

Ugh. Too bad he managed to smear a few last dabs of poison on our state before he finally slithered away. But glad he's gone, nonetheless.

:puke:

He has no right to blame the guaranteed failure of this boondoggle on anyone but himself. It was designed to feather his presidential cap. No thought to how we will come up with $380.00 per month to pay for this high deductible, high co-pay insurance. This plan is also nothing new, there are lousy private policies out there now that will do the same thing for around $300.00 a month. I had to buy one of them when I went from one job to another. I never felt insured with this "gap" coverage and thank heaven, never needed to use it. I felt that I must have some coverage so that if anything happened to me, there would be some kind of insurance.

This plan is just an insurance company bonanza. Fleece you, feather them. It is not what it is hyped to be.