Obama Health-care: Is Obamacare Romneycare?

Did you know the waiting time to see a doctor in Massachusettes is the worst of all the states in the country? In fact, 20% of the residents in the state can’t find a doctor to care for them! This is under Romneycare which some are saying the democrats are using to morph Obamacare into in hopes of getting the stupid thing passed! Read more below, see photos, and watch a great video.

Mitt Romney, Romneycare

Control costs by denying or rationing care. That’s a big fear of universal health care and a surety is Obamacare passes. The democrats’ healthcare plan which has lost voter support is now being re-tooled so that Obamacare is Romneycare, which is now operating in Massachusetts. The only problem with that is that Romneycare is not so hot.

James Pethokoukis gives us a reality check on just that happening right now with Obamacare. Check this out. It’s long but worth the read:

“Analyst Daniel Clifton of Strategas Research thinks President Obama may get the chance to sign an $800 billion (over 10 years) bill that would contain features such an individual mandate to buy health insurance, subsidies up to 300 percent of the poverty limit to purchase a regulated plan through a health insurance ‘exchange’, and an expansion of Medicaid.

Obama might even get his commission that would try to determine what Medicare pays doctors and hospitals — now that the Congressional Budget Office has determined it would pretty much be powerless.

As one lobbyist put it: ‘I would see this as mostly a symbolic victory (for Republicans), as the Dems can get most of what they want without calling it a public option. Frankly. it’s pretty close to the Massachusetts model.’

Ah yes, the Massachusetts model. The state passed sweeping reform in 2006 under Governor Mitt Romney. What would a similar approach mean for America?

Well, there would be a lot fewer uninsured people. Massachusetts has halved the number of people without health insurance, with just 2.6 percent not currently covered.

But the reform has been far less successful bringing down costs. For starters, original cost estimates for Commonwealth Care projected the program would cost $400 million in 2008 and $725 million in 2009. The actual numbers were $628 million in 2008 and $869 billion for this year (with some costs estimates of $1 billion or more).

Moreover, health insurance premium costs continue to rise at a rapid clip of 9.4 percent a year, compared with 7.7 percent for the United States on average. As the Urban Institute found: ‘Health spending in Massachusetts is higher than the United States on average and is growing at a faster rate. Furthermore, health insurance premiums are growing even faster than health care costs in the state.’”

Romneycare was signed in 2006 and we’re just now comparing it to Obamacare? Hello? Maybe that’s because Romneycare is in fact a program that very closely resembles The One’s healthcare plan. And the fact that Romneycare, which has a track record, is a disaster on several levels explains why the democrats pretend Romneycare doesn’t exist when debating and defending their own plan. And the republicans in congress? Well they need to get a clear message from their conservative constituents: absolutely no compromise on health-care.

So, Obama Health-care: Is Obama-care Romney-care? Yes, I imagine the democrats are trying very hard to morph the health-care bill into something like Massachusettes’ plan. Do you want to see how Obamacare would look here in America? Look at Romneycare mess and demand it to be dead.