Points for Stating the Obvious: Mitt Romney on Health Care

Mitt and I have a love/hate relationship (it's one-sided, of course, since he doesn't know me from the other 700 pairs of shoes in his closet). I don't agree with him all the time on all subjects--but I'm at a loss on this latest misrepresentation of his words. In this Wall Street Journal article, Mitt says:

"... we do provide care for people who don’t have insurance… 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." 

This video from the clever little Obama spin doctors paints Romney as a lying flip-flopper: 

I just love the way words are twisted and presented in a way to fool the American people (most of whom believe it because they "saw it on the by-GOD telly, Harry! Of course, it's the damn truth!"). Half truths, slanted accusations designed to pull the wool over America's eyes and distract them from REAL issues they SHOULD be paying attention to. 

I'm not surprised though. It's happened every day during this election year--and all political sides are guilty. But let's take a closer look at what Romney is REALLY saying here:

Using the emergency room as a primary care physician, especially when you don't have health insurance, is a contributing factor--and quite a large one--to the skyrocketing cost of health care.

Folks, it's not the heart attacks in the ER that got us into the health care mess. Those cases will end up in hospitals anyway (as they should). It's the people who go to the ER for things like aspirin and antacid--because they can get those things FREE in the ER, rather than pay a couple of their own bucks for them at the corner drugstore. 

And it's not really the aspirin or antacid or tylenol that's jacked up the cost of health care; it's the actual ER visit (administration, paperwork, doctor and staff salaries, supplies, room charge) that DOES NOT get paid by the patient.

So, who pays for it? 

The rest of us who DO pay. The burden is shifted from those who DON'T pay to those who DO pay. Health care costs at the hospitals go up, our insurance premiums go up, up, up. It's just simple math--balance sheets and P&L. Healthcare, after all, IS a business.

A doc friend of mine told me about a woman that visits the ER every month with mild cramps--to get Motrin. She's not the brightest bulb among many dim bulbs to be sure; but who is really at fault? Someone rewarded for putting her hand out? Or a system that not only gives people permission to act irresponsibly in the first place but also rewards them for being irresponsible?

Does this sound at all familiar? Of course it does! It's what this whole election year is about for Obama--taking away from people who HAVE to give to people who DON'T HAVE. And then rewarding the people who don't have for not trying to do or be anything more. His entire presidential (no--entire POLITICAL CAREER) agenda has been to enslave our nation to government. If you think you know Obama, read this article in The Washington Examiner.

The bottom line of what Mitt said is that as long as we give away non-emergency services and over-the-counter meds in the ER to people who don't pay for them, then we can't expect anything but rising costs and more people taking advantage of a broken system. 

Why wouldn't Medicaid do a better job at EDUCATING Medicaid recipients on this subject? Because that would not be in the best interest of Medicaid: a government-run program largely invested in growing its ranks to justify and prolong its bloated existence. 

As unemployment grows; as food and gas prices go up; as real estate values drop; the more people will end up on welfare--and the more they will turn to the ER for primary, non-emergency care. And these very people will vote for a president who will ENSURE their continued benefits of dependency. 

I think too many Americans know Mitt Romney does not agree with their dependency and that he will take steps to eliminate it--and that's why his words about emergency room care have been twisted. 

Unfortunately, it's just one more nail in his political coffin. It's just one more reason why people who either can't or won't pay their own way will jump on the burning Obamawagon--on its way straight off a cliff.