Romney stumbles badly on veterans’ care

[ProSense]

Romney stumbles badly on veterans’ care

By Steve Benen

Ordinarily, presidential candidates wouldn’t pick Veterans’ Day to annoy veterans. Mitt Romney must have missed the memo.

At an event in South Carolina, the former Massachusetts governor, who has no background in the military, suggested he’d like to “introduce some private sector competition” into veterans’ health care, at least partially privatizing the existing system. Given the excellence of the care our veterans receive, it seemed like a bizarre thing to say. Indeed, the VFW was not at all pleased.

When reporters asked the Romney campaign to explain, his spokesperson said the Republican candidate is “only interested in providing veterans with the world-class care they deserve and reversing the defense cuts and failed policies of the Obama administration.”

None of that statement makes any sense.

Paul Krugman took on the most glaring policy problem with Romney’s approach.

First, you know what voucherization would mean in practice: the vouchers would be inadequate, and become more so over time, so that veterans who don’t make enough money to top them up would fail to receive essential care. Patriotism!

Second, the VA is one of the great policy success stories of the past two decades…. So naturally Romney wants to privatize it. Because let’s remember, he’s the serious Republican.

Actually, this is quite consistent with the rest of his health care ideas. Basically, he wants to replace Medicare with Romneycare/Obamacare; this despite the fact that the only reason Romneycare/Obamacare runs through private insurers, rather than being straight single-payers, is as a political compromise. Medicare has lots of problems, but it’s more cost-effective than private insurance — as demonstrated by the utter failure of Medicare Advantage to save, as opposed to costing, money.

So, our serious Republican is committed on ideological grounds to demolishing successful programs and replacing them with conservative fantasies that have failed repeatedly in the past.

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[Vincardog]

1. Demolishing successful programs and replacing them with conservative fantasies that have failed

repeatedly in the past is what the GOP does. That is why we call them REgressives .

[southernyankeebelle]

2. The bastards are already raising coverage. Our prices on med are going up.

[ThoughtCriminal]

3. Generals Tie Walter Reed Privatization to Deplorable Conditions

Remember that scandal?

http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/03/07/generals-tie-walter-reed-privatization-to-deplorable-conditions/

"Army leaders admit the move to privatize support services and hand base operations, including repair and maintenance upkeep, to a well-connected contractor drove skilled workers from the base and played a role in the deteriorating and substandard living conditions wounded veterans at Walter Reed Army Medical Center were forced to endure."

[marlakay]

4. Don't worry next week he will take it all back

and say oops! my bad!