WASHINGTON -- Downplaying the need for the government to ensure that every person has health insurance, Mitt Romney on Sunday suggested that emergency room care suffices as a substitute for the uninsured.
"Well, we do provide care for people who don't have insurance," he said in an interview with Scott Pelley of CBS's "60 Minutes" that aired Sunday night. "If someone has a heart attack, they don't sit in their apartment and die. We pick them up in an ambulance, and take them to the hospital, and give them care. And different states have different ways of providing for that care."
This constitutes a dramatic reversal in position for Romney, who passed a universal health care law in Massachusetts, in part, to eliminate the costs incurred when the uninsured show up in emergency rooms for care. Indeed, in both his book and in high-profile interviews during the campaign, Romney has touted his achievement in stamping out these inefficiencies while arguing that the same thing should be done at the national level.At times it is almost hard to comment on this kind of callous, unthinking bullshit without going ballistic. This man hasn't got a clue about the realities of living in this world, nor can he see the big pictures of the situation when it comes to the fact that ER care is more expensive and will be paid for by the society when the patient can't.
I think there's more than just a disconnect there, though. Mitt and the other members of the 1% have a deeper belief than that: rich people DESERVE better health care than the riff raff. What's the point in being rich if you don't get special treatment in every way, and if others don't suffer for their lack of money. It would never be stated this way by them, but doesn't it seem to be their true philosophy?
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