Romney Uses Obama’s Words To Defend Health Care Reform (video)
At last nights GOP presidential debate, Rick Santorum challenged Mitt Romney on the similarities between the health care reform he signed into law as governor of Massachusetts and President Obamas Affordable Care Act. Your mandate is no different than Barack Obamas mandate. It is the same mandate, Santorum charged. You take over 100 percent, just like he takes over 100 percent, requires the mandate. The same fines that you put in place in Massachusetts are fines that he puts in place in the federal level. Same programs.
The comparison immediately put Romney on the defense, who claimed, I didnt say Im in favor of top- down government-run health care, and explained that he expanded access to private insurance and allowed people to choose any plan within a state-run exchange. Theres no government plan, he added. And if you dont want to buy insurance, then you have to help pay for the cost of the state picking up your bill, because under federal law if someone doesnt have insurance, then we have to care for them in the hospitals, give them free care. So we said, no more, no more free riders.
Romneys description of his plan sounded so much like Obamas rational for the federal health care law that ThinkProgress has compiled a video comparing how both politicians describe their reforms
Watch it:
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/01/27/413283/video-romney-and-obama-defend-health-care-reform/