Mitt Romney Debates Mitt Romney on Health Care . . .

And In an Upset, Mitt Romney Loses

Mitt Romney has had the unusual experience of being subjected to withering WSJ editorials for the last two days, you know, the type of editorial wrath that is usually reserved for proposals that multi-billionaire buyout fund managers should not get to pay capital gains tax rates on their compensation.  The source of the wrath is Mr. Romney’s continued defense of the Massachusetts Health Care Plan he crafted while governor while at the same time Mr. Romney  attacks the Obama plan (which is based on the Massachusetts Plan) and argues that other states should be free to design their own plans.

The winner in this debate is the WSJ.  They point out that the requirement of health care insurance for everyone cannot be defended as something good for Massachusetts and not good for other states.  There are differences between the states, and it might be reasonable for Florida, let’s say, to require hurricane insurance where Nebraska probably does not need such a mandate.

But health insurance is not subject to state by state differences.  Either mandatory coverage is desirable across the country, or it is not.  In his letter to the WSJ Mr. Romney ignores the health insurance mandate, which is at the core of the dispute and instead talks about his differences with the WSJ on how the plan affected Massachusetts health care costs and other issues.  Why health insurance is something that should be required of Bay State citizens and not citizens of other states is just a question he cannot answer.

At the end of his letter Mr. Romney does say that the plan for Massachusetts should not be used for all states because it “ignores the very real differences between states” but he fails to give even one example of what those differences are with respect to health care.  The reason he does not, Occam’s Razor would have us believe, is because with respect to health care there are no differences among the states.  The simplest answer is the right answer.