Romney Justifies Denying Health Care To People With Preexisting Conditions...(calls it a "game")

[ProSense]

Romney Justifies Denying Health Care To People With Preexisting Conditions: ‘We Can’t Play The Game Like That’

By Alex Seitz-Wald

As Mitt Romney tries to distance himself from Obamacare, he ran into some trouble last night when he got stumped by comedian Jay Leno. Leno asked Romney what he would do to help people with preexisting medical conditions, who are often denied coverage today by insurance companies worried about increased costs.

Romney’s answer was essentially nothing. Someone who has forgone insurance doesn’t deserve to get medical coverage, Romney suggested, because, “we can’t play the game like that.” Asked what he would do to help people with preexisting conditions, Romney replied:

ROMNEY: People with pre-existing conditions, as long as they have been insured before, they are going to be able to continue to have insurance.

LENO: Suppose they haven’t been insured before?

ROMNEY: Well, if they are 45 years old and they show up and say I want insurance because I have heart disease, it’s like, ‘Hey guys. We can’t play the game like that. You’ve got to get insurance when you are well and then if you get ill, you are going to be covered. [...]

We’ll look at a circumstance where someone is ill and hasn’t been insured so far, but people who have the chance to be insured –- if you are working in the auto business for instance, the companies carry insurance, they insure their employees, you look at the circumstances that exist –- but people who have done their best to get insured are going to be able to be covered. But you don’t want everyone saying, ‘I am going to sit back until I get sick and then go buy insurance.’ That doesn’t make sense. But you get defined rules and get people in who are playing by the rules.

Watch it (beginning 2:15):

<...>

Barring insurance companies from denying coverage to people with preexisting conditions is one of the Affordable Care Act’s most popular and important provisions. The problem, for Romney, is that this can only function when coupled with an individual mandate (as he well knows), the constitutionality of which the Supreme Court considered yesterday.

- more -

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/03/28/453474/romney-justifies-denying-health-care-to-people-with-preexisting-conditions-we-cant-play-the-game-like-that/

[liberal N proud]

1. Everything is a game whey you are the 1%

It's not a game to those who need care and can't get it

[nobodyspecial]

2. And if you lose your job with insurance

and there is a gap before you find a new one that offers insurance, you are screwed.

[Jennicut]

3. Sometimes you lose insurance and then you get diagnosed with something.

This makes me so angry as someone with a preexisting condition.

[Bluenorthwest]

4. It is also gamesmanship to constantly claim that a mandate must include profits for

those selling the policies. In other nations that mandate the purchase of health care policies, it is a crime to profit from those policies. Conflating the presumed 'need' for a mandate with a demand for a mandate that we all chip in to the profits of other citizens and companies is a ploy, a tactic, it is play a game with important issues.
A 'mandate' does not equal 'a for profit mandate'. Ours will if allowed be the ONLY such mandate on the planet. Why is that? Others use mandates without that demand for free cash for the profiteers. So those arguing for 'a mandate' really need to start arguing for 'the for profit mandate' as that is what we are making. First of it's kind. Other nations call that profit criminal, as others are forced to purchase under force of law.
Here is the candidate Obama explaining why he opposed the mandate, which Clinton supported:
"Let’s break down what she really means by a mandate. What’s meant by a mandate is that the government is forcing people to buy health insurance and so she’s suggesting a parent is not going to buy health insurance for themselves if they can afford it. Now, my belief is that most parents will choose to get health care for themselves and we make it affordable.
Here’s the concern. If you haven’t made it affordable, how are you going to enforce a mandate. I mean, if a mandate was the solution, we can try that to solve homelessness by mandating everybody to buy a house."

And there it is.

[ProSense]

8. Well,

Here is the candidate Obama explaining why he opposed the mandate, which Clinton supported:
"Let’s break down what she really means by a mandate. What’s meant by a mandate is that the government is forcing people to buy health insurance and so she’s suggesting a parent is not going to buy health insurance for themselves if they can afford it. Now, my belief is that most parents will choose to get health care for themselves and we make it affordable.
Here’s the concern. If you haven’t made it affordable, how are you going to enforce a mandate. I mean, if a mandate was the solution, we can try that to solve homelessness by mandating everybody to buy a house."

...a lot of people are paying more than 8 percent of their income for coverage. Yes, Hillary did support a mandate, and Obama said he wouldn't until affordability was addressed. In deciding to go with the mandate, the law exempts those whose portion of their premiums exceeds 8 percent of their income.

The Individual Mandate: How Sweeping?

The so-called “individual mandate” – the provision under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that requires most individuals to carry a minimum level of insurance coverage and is now being considered by the Supreme Court – has emerged as the least popular element of the reform law and the prime target for its opponents. Yet in practice, the mandate may not be quite as far-reaching as the controversy over it suggests.

The vast majority of Americans already get insurance from their employers, Medicaid, Medicare, the individual market, or other sources of coverage, and will essentially automatically comply with the mandate once it goes into effect in 2014. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that about 80% of the 272 million non-elderly people in 2014 would be insured even in the absence of the ACA and would therefore already fulfill the mandate’s requirement.

Also, although the ACA requires people to maintain health insurance or else pay a penalty, the law allows a series of exemptions and special considerations, meaning that millions of individuals could be exempt from the requirement to maintain coverage.

The mandate’s exemptions cover a variety of people, including: members of certain religious groups and Native American tribes; undocumented immigrants (who are not eligible for health insurance subsidies under the law); incarcerated individuals; people whose incomes are so low they don’t have to file taxes (currently $9,500 for individuals and $19,000 for married couples); and people for whom health insurance is considered unaffordable (where insurance premiums after employer contributions and federal subsidies exceed 8% of family income).

- more -

http://healthreform.kff.org/notes-on-health-insurance-and-reform/2012/march/the-individual-mandate-how-sweeping.aspx

[Bluenorthwest]

14. And yet, no one can explain to me how my household would get treated.

The President was correct on the campaign trail. Now he says exactly what Clinton was saying, which he mocked, derided, chided in all forms of media.
So sorry if I agree with the President on the wrong day. I agreed with him when he was correct. Does that count at all?

[Bonhomme Richard]

5. I agree with him therefore the only logical solution is

Single Payer like every other civilized country. For Gods sake we are not re-inventing the wheel. They know the answer. They are not stupid. it has everything to do with taxes and protecting the health insurance industries.

[sinkingfeeling]

6. Excuse me, Mitt, but how do you intend to get healthy

people to buy insurance? And how are you going to keep insurance companies from dropping people once they become ill?

[global1]

9. When I Buy Auto Insurance, When I Buy Life Insurance, When I Buy House Insurance.....

my auto, my life and my house are all in good condition. I'm buying each of these insurances to protect myself should I get in a auto crash, should I die or should my house get hit by a tornado, hurricane, fire, tree, etc.

Wouldn't one want to do the same with health insurance? (i.e., buy it when they are healthy and use it when they need it should they get sick, get in a car crash, get buried under a falling house, etc).

This is why I support a mandate. If the person didn't have health insurance and befalls one of these incidents - either they cost me because the system has to pick up the cost of their care and recovery or they go broke from the bills that they incur with these incidents.

Because I want to protect myself - I now pay through the nose for my health insurance that I don't need to cover those that are too short-sighted to protect themselves.

[ProSense]

10. What

This is why I support a mandate. If the person didn't have health insurance and befalls one of these incidents - either they cost me because the system has to pick up the cost of their care and recovery or they go broke from the bills that they incur with these incidents.

...about the people who can't afford it, and those who are dropped by the insurance companies or are born with a pre-existing condition?

That is the problem with Romney's comment.

He's utterly clueless and heartless.

[global1]

12. I Was Responding To 'sinkingfeelings' Comment As To How Are You Going To Get Healthy People To Buy..

this insurance. With ACA those with 'pre-existing conditions' will have to be covered; insurance companies will not be able to cap payouts and I believe that people that can't afford it will be given a chance to get basic coverage they can afford.

I don't agree with Romney - but I support ACA and though I would prefer "single payer" I do support ACA even with the mandate.

Everyone needs health insurance. The point I was trying to make is that the purchase of any insurance that one makes - they make the purchase before the tragedy befalls them - not after. Insurance = Protection

[sinkingfeeling]

13. I was asking how, without ACA and a mandate, Romney would get people to

buy the insurance. There is a large segment of the 'healthy' population that does not think as you do, that it is to buy as protection.

[Ganja Ninja]

11. And what happens if you lose your insurance and have a pre-existing condition?

What happens to people who are born with pre-existing conditions? Sometimes, in fact most times, being shortsighted has nothing to do with it.

The problem with the mandate is it still doesn't solve the real underlying problem with the healthcare system, insurance companies. They add no value to the function of the healthcare system. Their basic interests are diametrically opposed to that of patients. You can't reform the system and leave them a part of it. As long as we have a system of legal bribery of elected officials insurance companies will corrupt the system and we will have to keep fighting them over and over. You have to get rid of them and go with a single payer national system run by the government.

[global1]

15. I Totally Agree With You That The Mandate Doesn't Solve The Real Underlying Problem Of Insurance Co.

but this is the system as it now stands and I think Obama realized that we must first work within the system and try and eek out some concessions by the insurance industry - like pre-existing conditions, etc. Then once this kicks in fully in 2014 and people begin to realize all its benefits we start to work on this underlying problem of the insurance companies.

Change does not come overnight. Especially for a health care system that evolved into this monster that we have to deal with today as it now stands.

I've taken the time to read all of the ACA act. It was criticized for being 2000 pages long - but when you read it you realize just how comprehensive it is and how well thought out it really is. One also realizes why it had to be 2000 pages long. Our healthcare system is really complicated and to treat it any less comprehensively wouldn't have done it justice.

In my mind 'the mandate' is both a precursor and a catalyst for 'single payer' as it evolves over time.

Obama achieving this model in his first year was really and accomplishment. I wasn't around when SS or Medicare was conceived and passed - but I'm sure that through the years modifications were made to both that make them what they are today. This is what I think will happen to ACA.

The problem with our society today is what I call the "McDonald's Syndrome". If you go into a McDonald's and don't get waited on in the first 30 seconds we're ready to jump over the counter and fix our food ourselves. We've come to expect everything to happen immediately and if it doesn't we become frustrated, disappointed, critical and sometimes downright angry. Most people that go to McDonald's are in, ordered, sated and out the door in 7 minutes. We expect that quickness in everything we do and encounter now.

Problem is we're talking about a 'healthcare system' that really a 'sick care system'. Most people don't use it until they are sick and need to. We need to change it from the ground up so it really becomes a "healthcare system". It needs to become preventative. It needs to concentrate on wellness and keeping people healthy so they don't need to use it.

In my mind this will not happen overnight because we need to change too many things and too many people make too much money off our present system - think insurance companies, pharma, medical device companies, providers, etc, etc, etc.

Change is a hard thing to accomplish. Most people concentrate on the negative aspects of change - like how this change will affect me. Most of the time this negative is an economic negative. How much will I lose? How much will I have to spend?

Unfortunately there are too many behaviors that need to change in order to get us into a mode and habit and an acceptance of having a health care system that works for us.

[HughBeaumont]

7. Most tone deaf political candidate in history.

RMoney lives in a bubble and tells it like it ain't.