Romney Stands by Massachusetts Health Care Reform

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Mitt Romney not backing away from the health care reform law that he pushed forward in Massachusetts.

In a speech he delivered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the state where his father had been governor, the presidential aspirant went on to say that what was right for Massachusetts is not necessarily right for the rest of the country.

He then proceeded to trot out the tired Republican formulas for health care reform:  block grants to states, selling insurance across state borders, medical liability reform, and shifting more costs onto individuals.

I would have offered a different response for Mr. Romney.

The federal law on employee benefits, ERISA, ties the hands of states who want to expand health care coverage.  It’s called the ERISA preemption.  We came up with a solution that ducks the federal preemption.  It works in Massachusetts because Massachusetts has a high rate of unionization, a high rate of income and a very low rate of uninsured.  That is not a solution that could work in states like Texas or Mississippi that have none of those.

The federal government has the power to ignore ERISA and to design a system that would be simpler and affordable for all.  Because it would eliminate the convoluted eligibility requirements under the current system, because it would eliminate the Byzantine and arcane payment rules under the current system, because it would standardize rules, it would be a much simpler system.

That simplicity would save the system billions and billions, more than enough to pay for the expanded coverage.

Our next door neighbor, Vermont, is attempting something like that.

That is a state example that Congress could emulate.

I can dream, can’t I.