Romney “60 Minutes” Statement about Emergency Care for the Uninsured Is Both a Change and Lapse in Judgment

In his interview with CBS News’ “60 Minutes” that aired yesterday, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney spoke favorably about health care provided to the uninsured by indicating that “we do provide care for people who don’t have insurance. If someone has a heart attack, they don’t sit in their apartment and die. We pick them up in an ambulance, and take them to the hospital, and give them care. And different states have different ways of providing that care.” The following is the statement of Ron Pollack, Founding Executive Director of the consumer health organization Families USA, about the Governor’s statement:

“Governor Romney has shown both a huge change in judgment, as well as an even larger lapse in judgment, when he suggests that care in hospital emergency rooms is a satisfactory way to deal with the almost 50 million people without health coverage today.

“Emergency room care is not only the most expensive form of health care, it is also the worst way of delivering health care. We should strive to provide preventive and primary care for everyone so we can avoid heart attacks or deal with possible tumors or other health problems before, not after, they become emergencies.

“Clearly, the Governor has moved 180 degrees in the wrong direction from the time, just half a dozen years ago, when he promoted and signed RomneyCare—the Massachusetts health reform law designed to provide coverage for virtually all people in the state.

“Not only is dependency on emergency care bad for the uninsured, it is bad for all of us. That is because the costs of emergency room care often can’t be fully paid for by the uninsured, and those costs ultimately get shifted to all of us with health coverage. Those costs today add more than $1,000 to premiums for families with insurance.

“The Governor’s reaction is bad health care and bad economics, and he should reconsider it.”

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Families USA is the national organization for health care consumers. It is nonprofit and nonpartisan and advocates for high-quality, affordable health care for all Americans.

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202-628-3030 · Email: info@familiesusa.org · www.familiesusa.org