It’s true that Romney didn’t cut Medicare. (Nor, as a governor, could he.) Romney’s health-care law, however, applies to all Massachusetts residents, not just 8 percent of them — even if only 8 percent were originally out of compliance with it. Like ObamaCare, Romney’s health-care law requires 100 percent of residents, with perhaps very few exceptions, to buy (often heavily taxpayer-subsidized) government-approved health insurance. True, the vast majority of Massachusetts residents already had insurance when the law was passed, but that’s the case nationally as well.
And Romney did raise taxes on those who violated this newly imposed insurance mandate.
In his book, Romney quotes Atul Gawande, a Harvard-affiliated doctor, who offers a generally favorable description of RomneyCare but notes that “those who had no coverage had to enroll in a plan or incur a tax penalty.” Gawande subsequently says that RomneyCare contains a “requirement that individuals buy insurance.” Romney doesn’t dispute Gawande’s description.
The website Mass.gov says, “The individual mandate is a requirement that all Massachusetts residents over the age of 18, for whom available health insurance is affordable, obtain and maintain health insurance that meets minimum coverage requirements beginning July 1, 2007.
“Individuals who cannot show proof of health insurance coverage by Dec. 31, 2007, will lose their personal income tax exemption when filing their 2007 income taxes….
“Failure to meet the requirement in 2008 will result in a fine for each month the individual does not have coverage. The fine will equal 50 percent of the least costly, available insurance premium that meets the standard for creditable coverage.”
Of course, the individual mandate is hardly the only problem with RomneyCare (or, even more so, ObamaCare). Shawn Tully, senior editor at Fortune magazine, has written that RomneyCare’s taxpayer-funded insurance “subsidies are enormous”; they are “90% for families earning $44,000.” Gawande (again, as quoted in Romney’s book) gleefully says, “For the past year, I haven’t had a single Massachusetts patient who has had to ask how much the necessary tests will cost.” Not surprising (but without any hint of making the connection), Gawande notes that “The Massachusetts plan didn’t do anything about medical costs,” and Romney concurs: “That is the task that remains.”
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