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Home Publications Blogs Beat the Press Politicians Do Not Always Say What They Mean: Romney on Health Care Costs

Politicians Do Not Always Say What They Mean: Romney on Health Care Costs

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Friday, 29 June 2012 17:10

A NYT article on Mitt Romney's approach to health care told readers:

"Mr. Romney’s plan, like those being proposed by Republicans in Congress, would put more emphasis on controlling health costs and less on reducing the ranks of the uninsured, the primary goal of the Obama plan."

This should say that "Mr. Romney claims his plan would put more emphasis on controlling health costs." It certainly is not clear that it will actually do anything to control costs.

He does not propose any of the obvious measures to contain costs such as trade agreements that would make it easier for qualified foreign doctors to enter the country, driving down the cost of physicians' services or limiting patent monopolies, thereby bringing drugs closer to their free market price. If Romney was interested in controlling costs he could give people the option to buy into Medicare which would put considerable downward pressure on the prices charged by private insurers.

Since Romney doesn't propose any of these measures and the ones listed in the article would have a questionable impact on costs, it is wrong for the NYT to assert that his plan "would put more emphasis on controlling costs." This is simply a claim by the Romney campaign, it is not a fact.

Comments (2)Add Comment
...
written by f.fursty, June 30, 2012 9:02
You often mention the trade barriers that keep medical costs high. These do exist and it's true that they highlight the hypocrisy of trade agreements tilted toward the rich and against the working classes.

HOWEVER: I humbly suggest you re-consider this issue. Allowing doctors from other countries into the US, like allowing US patients to go to places like Mexico or Thailand for health care, may be good for Americans but it is really, really bad for those countries. It sucks valuable health-care resources away from the poor countries that have paid to educate and train these doctors. What ends up happening, in effect, is that poor countries subsidize health care in the US at their own expense.

The US should have more doctors and it should pay to train them and it should pay them lower salaries. But stealing physicians from poor countries is not the answer.
Mittens and Costs
written by FoonTheElder, July 02, 2012 11:54
The only costs Mittens will cut is, just like the recession, the ability of Americans to afford health care costs.

This will result in a lowering of demand which will moderate costs a little bit. It just kicks the costs down the road by doing nothing for those who need medical assistance until they end up with a whopper of a bill for serious hospitalization.

This is the same logic used by 'consumer directed health plans' otherwise known as 'consultant driven health plans'.

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About Beat the Press

Dean Baker is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C. He is the author of several books, his latest being The End of Loser Liberalism: Making Markets Progressive. Read more about Dean.

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