This Could be Damaging.
So Mitt Romney has a healthcare problem (his Romneycare plan in Massachusetts has a mandate and provides universal coverage, which are evil in the teabagger eyes, and worse, it was the model upon which Obamacare is based, which makes it now Satanic), and he has an immigration problem (the rich man looking to save a buck had no problem hiring undocumented workers before he was running for President).
Now he has both problems again, this time together and multiplied by 10 or so:
“Massachusetts healthcare law that then-Gov. Mitt Romney signed in 2006 includes a program known as the Health Safety Net, which allows undocumented immigrants to get needed medical care along with others who lack insurance. […]
The Massachusetts program, which cost more than $400 million last year, paid for 1.1 million hospital and clinic visits. It’s unclear how many undocumented patients benefited because the state does not record that data… Massachusetts officials involved in crafting the healthcare law said there was broad understanding when Romney signed it that at least some people who would benefit would be in the country illegally. That’s supported by language in the law. Although it explicitly bars undocumented immigrants from getting certain health benefits, it does not prohibit them from receiving aid through the Health Safety Net.”
“which allows undocumented immigrants to get needed medical care along with others who lack insurance”
And they doubt the man is a Christian. He is more Christian than any of them.
Not that Romney isn’t also willing to drive half the country into grinding poverty for the benefit of the rich, like all Republicans. Let’s not get carried away here.
What the uninitiated don’t seem to understand is that “undocumented immigrants” are Federally entitled to SOME healthcare.
Under the The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA)ALL persons needing emergency medical treatment and/or are in active labor must be treated until stable at which point they can be transferred to another faciity or released.
but, as always, the ditto heads out there will grab onto Romney’s plan as it applies to undocumented persons with no understanding that there was a federal mandate behind it anyway.
ignorance does equate with T-Party
if Romney’s plan was to cover illness OUTSIDE EMTAL – well then he is more of a Christian than the rest if them – and wiser to boot – illness spreads and it doesn;t ask for papers either
Once again, a Republican candidate is tripped up by actually having a decent policy. Perry is already trying to make hay out of this one. The next debate should be good.