If — and it is still a big “if — Democrats pass a health bill, that bill will owe as much to former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney as to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. In fact, with the so-called “public option” out of the Senate health bill, the final product increasingly looks like the failed Massachusetts experiment. Consider that the final bill will likely include:
- An individual mandate
- A weak employer-mandate
- An Exchange (Connector)
- Middle-class subsidies
- Insurance regulation (already in place in Massachusetts before Romney’s reforms)
As to why this will be a disaster for American taxpayers, workers, and patients, I’ve written about it here, and my colleague Michael Cannon has covered it here and here.
Gee, thanks, Mitt.