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Pre-existing conditions? Romney says forget about it (Photo: Adrian Boliston / Flickr)
To those offended by the title: a “high school teacher” is a school teacher on drugs; a “high-school teacher” is someone who teaches high school. Mind the hyphen.
I’m talking about this bit of magical thinking:
UPDATE: 8:45 p.m. — A Romney aide told the National Review that he does not support the Affordable Care Act’s ban on discriminating against people with pre-existing conditions, despite suggesting on “Meet the Press” that he supported that part of the law.
Instead, the aide added, there has been no change in the Republican nominee’s position. “[I]n a competitive environment, the marketplace will make available plans that include coverage for what there is demand for,” the aide said. “He was not proposing a federal mandate to require insurance plans to offer those particular features.”
Kudos to HuffPo reporter Sam Stein, who highlighted that asinine remark in day glo yellow.
The marketplace will make available what there is profit in. And, in a competitive environment, there is no profit in insuring those with pre-existing conditions at standard rates. Those with pre-existing conditions will simply be priced out of the market.
The fact is that free-market medicine of the sort practiced in the U.S. is less effective and less efficient than more centralized systems. To deny that that is as misinformed as denying evolution, denying climate change, and holding on to birtherism.
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We won’t be getting the benefit of a reach-around (hyphenated or not) if that dirt-bag is elected.
Rec’d
Yep, Romney sure switches positions a lot. So does Obama.
On health care, foe example, Obama’s gone from Medicare for all (single payer) to strong public option to Romneycare.
In other words, both Obama and Romney ended up espousing the Heritage Foundation plan (as did Hillary, Perry, Gingrich, et al.)
Whose swings were the largest and most deceptive to their respective voters? I leave that to you, dear reader.
Dr. Jill Stein 2012. `
I have libertarian friends who actually get misty-eyed at the thought of the sublime wonderfulness of the free market and how the unseen hand miraculously adjust supply and demand through prices to produce the optimal benefit for one and all. They refuse to believe the data on our healthcare system, claiming that all of that data is cooked.