Santorum Campaign Press Release - Lessons Learned: Romney's Healthcare Experiment was a Failure

Verona, PA - This is the eve of the Supreme court hearings on the constitutionality of Obamacare. Today, we take a look at the prototype of socialized medicine, Romneycare - and ask what have we learned from its failure and why should be duplicate it on the national level.

We learned that Romneycare does not control costs. We learned that Romneycare has taken away individual control over healthcare decisions. We learned that Romneycare reduces the quality and availability of healthcare. If we know that, why repeat the same mistake?

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum says the Obama Administration should learn from Romney's failed healthcare experiment.

Rick Santorum said, "It didn't take long for people in Massachusetts to realize Romneycare was a failure and it is already proving to be the same on the national level. That's why I vow to repeal and replace Obamacare."

Michael Tanner is Director of Health and Welfare Studies at the Cato Institute and he writes, "The answer to controlling health care costs and increasing access to care lies with giving consumers more control over their health care spending while increasing competition in the health care marketplace- not in mandates, subsidies, and regulation. That is the lesson we should be drawing from the failure of RomneyCare."

The Washington Posts' Jennifer Rubin writes of Romney's mea-culpa "Next up is his first semi-admission that his chosen system didn't work. ("Our experiment wasn't perfect -- some things worked, some didn't and some things I'd change. One thing I would never do is to usurp the constitutional power of states with a one-size-fits-all federal takeover.") So what worked in his mind and what did not? Would he repeal the individual mandate?"

Cornell Law School Clinical Professor, William Jacobson takes it one step further and notes Romney's electability: "Rubin made a persuasive case that Romney's defense of Romneycare rendered him all but unelectable. Nothing has changed in Romney's position on Romneycare."

Additional information on Lessons Learned from Romneycare:

A Double Failure

The Massachusetts plan was supposed to accomplish two things-achieve universal health insurance coverage while controlling costs. As Romney wrote in the Wall Street Journal, "Every uninsured citizen in Massachusetts will soon have affordable health insurance and the costs of health care will be reduced." In reality, the plan has done neither.



Billion-Dollar Overrun

According to insurance industry insiders, the plans are too costly for the target market, and the potential customers- largely younger, healthy men-have resisted buying them.



The Bureaucratic Connector

Although there are undoubtedly many factors behind the cost increase, one reason is that the new bureaucracy that the legislation created-the "Connector"-has not been allowing Massachusetts citizens to buy insurance that "fits their needs."



ClintonRomneyEdwardsCare

The health care plans advocated by all three of the leading Democratic presidential candidates- Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and Barack Obama-are all substantially the same as Romney's.