Health-care reform is Romney's preexisting condition | New York ...

BY DAVID SWERDLICK

Mitt Romney has a problem: President Obama?s policies are too in sync with his.

Romney was an outspoken critic of the President?s auto industry bailout, but later tried to take partial credit for saving GM and Chrysler.

And he claims he?ll be tougher than Obama when it comes to containing Iran. But both of them say they?ll leave "all options are on the table."

And on Sunday?s "Meet The Press,"?Romney tried his best to have it both ways on health care, telling NBC?s David Gregory:

Well, I?m not getting rid of all of health-care reform. Of course, there are a number of things that I like in health-care reform that I?m going to put in place. One is to make sure that those with pre-existing conditions can get coverage. Two is to assure that the marketplace allows for individuals to have policies that cover their family up to whatever age they might like. I also want individuals to be able to buy insurance, health insurance, on their own as opposed to only being able to get it on a tax advantage basis through their company.

In other words, his response to Obamacare and its individual mandate ? the Obama policy that Republicans hate most, and one he promised to repeal on "day one" ? is that he?ll get rid of the law...but keep many pieces of the same law.

Sure, he?ll sign an Obamacare repeal if it passes through Congress, but he wants to let Americans have dessert without eating their peas.

Because dealing with the pre-existing condition problem ? or allowing policyholders to keep adult children on their coverage ? requires some kind of mechanism like the individual mandate. Otherwise, people will wait until they get sick to get insurance, and the market will completely break down.

That?s why there?s a mandate in Obamacare. And it?s why MassCare ? a/k/a Romneycare ? had the individual mandate built into it.

There's a chance Obamacare may not work in reality, but Romneycare Part Deux ? the way Romney now describes it ? won?t even work in theory.

But what?s worse is the story this tells about Romney: The politics of "have your cake and eat it too" is quickly becoming his calling card.

(Photo by Charles Dharapak, AP)

Source: http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/the_rumble/2012/09/health-care-reform-is-romneys-preexisting-condition

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