Wendell Potter: Mitt Romney's Health Care Fantasy World

[highplainsdem]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wendell-potter/mitt-romneys-health-care_b_1208556.html

Mitt Romney has taken a lot of heat since he said during a discussion about health care shortly before the New Hampshire primary that, "I like being able to fire people who provide services to me."

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While Romney's opponents had a field day with that comment, what bothered me most was the former Massachusetts governor's naïve suggestion that anyone but him and his rich friends could actually do what he was suggesting -- fire a health insurer on a whim and hire another one that might provide better service.

Come to think of it, I'm betting that even Mitt Romney might find it difficult to switch from one health insurer to another because of a bad experience with a customer service rep--unless, of course, he bought his own insurance firm.

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Romney clearly is living in a fantasy world where free-market competition among insurers actually exists and, presumably, would somehow flourish if he were in the White House. Here's hoping a reporter or two covering his campaign will ask him how he plans to pull that off.

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Potter includes his son Alex's experience -- Alex's employer-sponsored insurance gave him a choice between switching to a plan with premiums that were 65% higher, or accepting a deductible that was 900% higher, to keep the premium at about the same level.

I have relatives who've had to face the same choice, and I'm sure most DUers have either faced it themselves or have someone in their own family who has.

As Potter says, Romney's living in a health care fantasy world, and Democrats need to make that point again and again.

[highplainsdem]

1. kick

[libinnyandia]

2. That was my first reaction to his statement. It would be so wonderful if people had a real choice in

insurers. Or better yet, did not have to choose because of single payer insurance.

[Edweird]

3. His insurance plan was the basis for Obama's.