ObamaCare vs. RomneyCare – Fact Checking!

            With the House voting on the repeal of ObamaCare once again today, what could be better than taking some time to reflect on the past and return to an issue which is still semi-relevant in the healthcare bill debate: ObamaCare vs. RomneyCare, particularly the length of the two bills. One of the many hot topics in the 2012 political election is the condition of the United States’ economy. Discussion of our economy often leads to discussing ObamaCare, officially known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). During the CNN-hosted Republican Debate in Arizona in late February 2012, audience member Gilbert Fidler from Gilbert, Arizona asked the GOP candidates, “Since the first time in 65 years our national debt exceeds our gross national product, what are you going to do to bring down the debt?” A contender for the Republican nomination at the time, Senator Rick Santorum stated, “Obviously, the first thing we need to do is repeal ObamaCare.” Ever since winning the GOP nomination, Romney has started using a similar, if not identical statement regarding repealing ObamaCare in many of his speeches (this didn’t turn out in Romney’s favor in his speech to the NAACP earlier today, but that’s a whole other story). Whether praising him or blaming him for his healthcare bill, Mitt Romney still often finds RomneyCare being compared to ObamaCare.

            Before the GOP nomination was decided, Santorum blamed Governor Romney for ObamaCare in hopes people would steer clear of choosing Romney as the Republican nominee. Santorum stated the Massachusetts Healthcare Insurance Reform Law, better known as RomneyCare, was the precursor for the national healthcare bill. “The whole reason this issue is alive is because of the bill that you drafted in Massachusetts, RomneyCare, which was the model for ObamaCare and the government takeover of healthcare,” said Santorum to Romney during the Republican Debate. Romney responsed: “Let's point this out, our bill [RomneyCare] was 70 pages. His bill [ObamaCare] is 2700 pages.”

          Everything a politician says should be fact checked, so I thought I’d take the liberty for you: According to Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler, Romney “is double-counting pages and adding things that had little to do with healthcare. The correct comparison is about 145 pages (RomneyCare) to 200 pages (ObamaCare).” Politico.com published an article in November 2009 stating, “In the Battle of the Health Bills, the Senate wins out, bulk-wise – weighing in at 2,074 pages…. The table of contents alone is 14 pages.” On The 187^th General Court of The Commonwealth of Massachusetts legislative website, one can print chapter 58 of the state’s Session Laws, “An Act Providing Access To Affordable, Quality, Accountable Heath Care.” This printout of RomneyCare is 68 pages long.

            The fact checking on the length of these two healthcare bills did not stop there: Igor Volsky of Think Progressive reported in June 2011, “Michael Cannon, director of health policy at the Cato Institute… estimated that the section of the national law that directly compares to Romney’s law is only about 200 pages of the 907-page version.” Five years earlier Boston Globe staff members Scott Helman and Liz Kowalczyk reported, “Before signing the bill yesterday, Romney vetoed eight provisions in the 145-page bill, including the business fee and an expansion of Medicaid benefits for certain recipients.” Kessler published an article in June 2011 which said, “The bills [the Senate version and the reconciled House version of ObamaCare] also included elements that had nothing to do with universal healthcare, such as an overhaul of student loans and new long-term care legislation.” When dealing with the fact that the RomneyCare and ObamaCare bills have been specified to be so many different lengths, Kessler said, “The number of pages depends not only on the words in the bill, but also the text size and even the page size.”

            Perhaps RomneyCare was the right choice for the state of Massachusetts, but not all of the U.S. is the same and therefore a one-size-fits-all concept doesn’t always work in this country. Pointing to states rights and allowing states to create healthcare bills which work best for each of their individual demographics might be the correct move for the American healthcare system, as it does not look like everyone is going to agree on a national healthcare bill any time soon; we cannot agree on the length of the bills, never mind the content. As for the fact checking on the length of ObamaCare versus RomneyCare, no one can come to a definitive conclusion as to how long each proposed bill or law was. Therefore, I say it is time to put political jargon aside and simply accept that RomneyCare was shorter than ObamaCare, at least that’s what all this fact checking seems to point out. However, take what that means with a grain of salt – it is time to move on.

Healthcare & Constitutionality

            Regardless of what Justice Roberts says, I’m not convinced the Affordable Care Act (also known as the Healthcare Bill and ObamaCare) is constitutional. It is not fair to force citizens to have healthcare and force employers to provide it. It sounds like socialism is starting to take over in this country; Big Brother is most definitely watching. The U.S. was supposedly founded principles where every person is to be free. The last time I checked the American way of doing things is to have a choice, to not be forced against one’s own will and to be free to make our own decisions. Once that freedom is taken away we might as well throw away the Constitution all together and just have one law: Let others decide for us.

Who is going to pay the estimated $940 billion this Healthcare Bill is going to cost? It looks like those with the money will once again be dishing out more cash. What happened to American principles? If you work hard you should get to keep what you make and reap the benefits of all the effort you put in. Apparently this no longer exists, as free handouts are seen as a solution to the problem. We’re digging ourselves a deeper hole; handouts may work in the short-run, but in the long-run we’re simply making the problem worse. The American Dream is dying! But don’t worry, under the new Healthcare Bill it can get all the care it needs. That is, if the care it needs is available, there aren’t too many people in line and the resources haven't completely used up.

Our unemployment rate has been hovering around 10% (give or take) for a while now. What’s the best way to get more people in the work force and bring down that unemployment rate? The answer is raising taxes, of course (sarcasm). If companies who haven’t been providing healthcare must now provide coverage money they will simply hire less people, or pay their employees less money and take the cost of healthcare out of their salary. Small businesses will go bankrupt and individuals who provide their own health insurance will be forced to put a large sum of their earnings towards their newly inquired and unwanted health bills. Any subsidies “promised” by the U.S. government have to come from somewhere if the budget is ever going to actually one day balance. Where, you might ask? I’ll give you one guess: taxes! America is in debt and we don’t have the money to fund this Healthcare escapade. Therefore the Medicare Payroll Tax will be increasing to include unearned income which will largely affect the upper middle class citizens of this country, and an Excise Tax will be added into the mix which will hurt insurance companies. And we thought it was hard to find decent insurance before the Healthcare Bill… think again.

I agree those without healthcare coverage should have coverage; one’s health is extremely important. But I do not agree with forcing people to do something they do not want to do. Also, if our citizens have healthcare it does not mean we will all the sudden be a healthier country. The Healthcare Bill is just another way for the rich to provide more handouts, for the unemployment rate to increase, for small businesses to suffer, for politicians to continue making false promises, for our right to decide for ourselves to be taken away and for taxes will go up. But don’t worry; it’s all Constitutional! At least that’s what we’re being told.