Everybody knows that when Mitt Romney said, “I don’t care about poor people,” the quote was taken out of context. What he actually said was that he wasn’t concerned about the poor because he believed the government’s social safety net would take care of them. (It’s tempting to quibble with that — after all, his party is doing its best to shred that safety net. See the Paul Ryan budgets for this year and last, for example. But that’s another matter.)
On the “Jay Leno Show” on NBC last night, Romney made a similar statement. about uninsured Americans who have preexisting conditions this time — and this time his apathy about their fates is clear, even when read in context:
“It seems to me like children and people with preexisting conditions should be covered,” Leno noted.
“People with preexisting conditions — as long as they’ve been insured before, they’re going to continue to have insurance,” Romney explained.
“Suppose they were never insured?” Leno asked.
“Well, if they’re 45 years old, and they show up, and they say, I want insurance, because I’ve got a heart disease, it’s like, `Hey guys, we can’t play the game like that. You’ve got to get insurance when you’re well, and if you get ill, then you’re going to be covered,’” Romney replied.
“I know guys that work in the auto industry and they’re just not covered because they work in brake dust,” Leno pressed. “And then they get to be 30, 35, and were never able to get insurance before. Now they have it. That seems like a good thing.”
“But people who have had the chance to be insured — if you’re working in an auto business for instance, the companies carry insurance, they insure all their employees — you look at the circumstances that exist,” the candidate explained. “But you don’t want everyone saying, `I’m going to sit back until I get sick and then go buy insurance.’ That doesn’t make sense. But you have to find rules that get people in that are playing by the rules.”
According to a U.S. Department of Health & Human Services report from last year, 129 million Americans with preexisting condition could be denied coverage if (or now, apparently, when) Obamacare is overturned.
But these millions people, with their diagnoses of cancer, heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis, Alzheimer’s disease, or — like his own wife — multiple sclerosis, deserve to go bankrupt and die miserable deaths in the streets, as far as Mitt Romney is concerned.
Has Mitt Romney ever had a real job? Has Mitt Romney ever been laid off? He likes to fire people, but he’s never had to go without insurance between jobs, apparently. He hasn’t got a clue what it’s like for those he has fired, nor does he have a clue what it’s like to be a regular American citizen.
NO! You’re not getting it. When Romney becomes president, he will repeal Obamacare and replace it with all of the tenents of Obamacare. It’s that simple. Common Sense Folks!
Obama created our problems and Romney is going to fix them…by doing the same thing Obama did. Just done by a white guy.
Sarasota Joe, I agree with you that Romney is basically saying he’ll replace health care reform with health care reform but I hope you’re being facetious that Obama created our problems.
I think it’s obvius Sarasota Joe is being facetious.