Mitt Rmoney Praises Socialized Medicine

[Theophylact]

During a trip to Israel, Mitt Romney hailed the nation’s health care system for holding down costs and broadening coverage more effectively than the U.S.

The irony: Israel contains costs by adopting a very centralized, government-run health care system — anathema to Romney’s Republican Party.

“Do you realize what health care spending is as a percentage of the GDP in Israel? Eight percent. You spend eight percent of GDP on health care. You’re a pretty healthy nation,” he said Monday at a breakfast fundraiser, according to the New York Times. “We spend 18 percent of our GDP on health care, 10 percentage points more. That gap, that 10 percent cost, compare that with the size of our military — our military which is 4 percent, 4 percent. Our gap with Israel is 10 points of GDP. We have to find ways — not just to provide health care to more people, but to find ways to fund and manage our health care costs.”

Israel’s health care system is an instructive exercise in all that rankles American conservatives — replete with government mandates, price controls and centralized payments funded mostly by high taxes.

Reformed in 1995 on the basis of a European model, Israelis are forced to buy insurance from one of several competing not-for-profit plans, which are heavily regulated by the government, according to the journal Health Affairs. The state requires them to cover everyone regardless of health status, and establishes a broad benefits package insurance policies must provide,
updated annually by a committee of appointed experts. The government pays the full cost of these policies, mostly through higher taxes. The state also caps the level of annual revenue hospitals can earn from an insurance plan. Care is largely delivered through government-owned facilities; there are private providers, but they tend to charge more.

So how’s the socialized approach working out?

Quite well. Israel covers all residents and spends 8 percent of its national product on health care; the U.S. currently spends 17.5 percent and has many uninsured. Nor are Israelis resigned to low quality care or long waits that some associate with government-run systems: according to the Jewish Daily Forward, “going by many indexes of health outcomes, the result in terms of quality of care [in Israel] is often better — and definitely cheaper than in the U.S.”

A 2010 study in Health Affairs describes “strong government influence” over its system has been the catalyst for Israel’s low health spending growth since the 1995 reforms.

The Affordable Care Act moves the U.S. a bit closer to an Israel-type system with the use of regulations and mandates to extend coverage, but permits far less government power over health care delivery than Israel. Romney has vowed to repeal the law if elected president.

[tony_j15]

Ya can't make this stuff up.

[pickel]

Ya can't make this stuff up.

Romney can !!! He can talk out of more sides of his mouth than Flip Wilson !!!!!!!!!!!!

If Sarah Palin IS "Miss Piggy".

Who is Willard "Mitt the Twit" Romney ????






Boss HawG

[Theophylact]

Steve Benen:

But that's not all he said at the fundraiser.

"Culture makes all the difference," Mr. Romney said. "And as I come here and I look out over this city and consider the accomplishments of the people of this nation, I recognize the power of at least culture and a few other things."

"As you come here and you see the G.D.P. per capita, for instance, in Israel which is about $21,000, and compare that with the G.D.P. per capita just across the areas managed by the Palestinian Authority, which is more like $10,000 per capita, you notice such a dramatically stark difference in economic vitality," he said.

There's quite a bit wrong with this. For one thing, Romney's figures are inaccurate. For another, it's curious to hear him praise Israel's GDP, given that Israel has a top marginal income tax rate of 48% on income over $125,000. Isn't this the sort of economic policy that offends Romney to the core?

But even if we put those details aside, the argument Romney presented -- Israel has the superior "culture," which is why Palestinians have less money -- is simply offensive on its face.

It clearly displays a degree of ignorance about "the areas managed by the Palestinian Authority," where economic activities are restricted and opportunities to create a robust GDP are limited. But also note the underlying elitism -- inferior cultures, Romney seemed to argue, are the ones with lower per capita GDP.

Does the presidential hopefully really want to stick to this line? Given that here in the U.S., "blue" states tend to have higher per capita GDP than "red" states, does Romney believe this is the evidence of the superiority of cultural differences?

Pressed for an explanation, the Romney campaign said the former governor had been taken out of context (there's a lot of that going around). As campaign aides explained it, after mentioning the per capita GDP of Israel and Palestine, Romney also said, "And that is also between other countries that are near or next to each other. Chile and Ecuador, Mexico and the United States."

Hmm. So to downplay the ugliness of the underlying argument, the Romney camp wants reporters to know he also believes Chile has a superior culture to Ecuador, and Mexicans are inferior, too, by virtue of the size of their economy.

[pickel]

Thanks for the links.

It's always nice to see how woefully intelligent our politicians are, especially the Presidential candidates.
By the time the election comes Ole Mitt would be thinking that he should have hired Obombma's advisers.

[tony_j15]

Just noticed title:


Mitt Rmoney
Rmoney
Spelling error!
But Theo never makes spelling errors.
ZOMG YOU SNEAKY DEVIL.