Der Mittenfuhrer flip-flops away from his disasterous health care plan

[Ian David]

The circle is complete

A year after sitting on stage at Faneuil Hall and basking in his glory while signing the Massachusetts health care access law, the Man of his Convictions is shifting gears again.

As Mitt Romney aggressively courts conservatives in his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, landmark health-care legislation that the former Massachusetts governor signed into law about a year ago has been largely left out of his pitch.

Let's see -- conservatives don't like the idea of government intrusion into the free market of health care -- you know the one that works so well (unlike the government-run Medicare program). No problem!

So the Mittser, who championed the individual mandate provision that is proving so hard to make work, is now backing away from what many consider to be his ONLY accomplishment.

More:
http://baystateliberal.blogspot.com/2007/04/circle-is-complete.html

[Lasher]

1. That's why stupid McCain has shot himself in the foot over Iraq

Gotta play to that GOP base to get nominated. I hope we'll be smarter with our nominee and pick someone who is electable.

[cadmium]

2. A couple things about the Mass Hlth plan:

The plan was spawned by a nascent struggle between the Mass Hospital Association and the insurance companies (primarily Blue Cross). The Hospital Assoc had been shouldering a lot of the cost of Free Care. 3 hospitals who served disproportionate low-income patients got excellent reimbursement from the state -- I dont know the latest numbers but it was around 90cents on the dollar - All the other hospitals only got around 18 cents on the dollar for their Free Care services. The exact percentages change every budget cycle so I dont know the latest.

Anyway Free Care was bleeding most hospital and they were pushing insurers to have to share the burden.

Eventually the Hosp Association and insurers worked with the state and the plans got rolling.