Romney Will Look to Market for Healthcare Reform…wait…Check That

(Reuters) - Republican Mitt Romney on Tuesday laid out his vision for a "consumer market" healthcare approach to replace President Barack Obama's sweeping reform law, whether or not the U.S. Supreme Court overturns the legislation this month.

Great – a market for health care.  Get the government out, buyers and sellers, free choice to buy…or not buy.  A real market.  Hooray!!!

Romney said he would like healthcare goods and services to be available in an open marketplace like other consumer products including automobiles and tires….

Boy, this sounds terrific.  Perhaps this is why Rand Paul supports Mitt.

Romney said he would also press for more private insurance options for senior citizens from Medicare…

Wait, this doesn’t sound like any market I know.  Is this something he learned at Bain?  How will he “press”?

…and help states address the needs of an estimated 50 million uninsured Americans by freeing up federal funds from the national Medicaid program for the poor.

Federal funds?  I smell a rat.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee told supporters in Orlando, Florida, that he would prevent people with pre-existing medical conditions with a history of health coverage from losing their insurance.

Um….wait a minute.  How, exactly, will he “prevent” this?  Perhaps he will ask nicely?

I am getting an uncomfortable feeling, like I have heard all of this somewhere before.  Let me think, wait a minute – it is coming back to me now:

The [Obamacare] law would extend health coverage to more than 30 million uninsured Americans beginning in 2014, prevent insurers from denying coverage to people with preexisting conditions…

Both plans would ensure people with preexisting medical conditions receive coverage.  When a Republican says this, I guess it is the “market.”  When proposed by a democrat, it didn’t come across this way.

"It's important for us, in my view, to make sure that every American has access to good healthcare," [Romney] said while offering few details on his proposals.

I think Obama said the same thing.  

Obama, whose speech was preceded by emotional testimony from a cancer patient, said: "After decades of inaction, we have finally decided to fix what is broken about healthcare in America. We have decided that it's time to give every American quality healthcare at an affordable cost."

Romney seems to have hired Obama’s speechwriter.

Consumer markets tend to work very well: Keep the costs down and the quality up…

Just like the Obamacare plan would...

…encourage innovations intended to lower costs while improving the quality of care.

Good deal for those opposed to Obamacare: Romney says he will repeal it….

"At a time when the Supreme Court has left Obamacare in case, I will repeal it on day one," Romney said.

And apparently replace it with Romneycare.  No need to write new legislation – they can just change the title.

Reuters makes an astute observation, one that demonstrates exactly why they are a news organization worthy of our trust:

His own prescription for the country's sprawling and often inefficient healthcare industry bore little resemblance to the president's reform law, which was based on the reforms Romney oversaw in Massachusetts in 2006.

Yes, clearly….

Thank you, Rand Paul.