This is what got to me about the quote and what puzzles me about some Republicans in real life. When asked specifically how some poor person is to get health care they talk about what should NOT be done…but never get around to specifics on what SHOULD be done. It really does seem that they really REALLY TRUELY THINK that some people should just NOT have healthcare.
To me this is not a realistic position. You cannot expect people to not partake of health care. Therefore it is going to have to be paid for in some way. What way is that going to be?
Romney appeared (maybe he didn’t actually mean this) to believe that certain people should just not have healthcare and many of his supporters seemed to enthusiastically agree.
This is something Republicans need to answer and stop dodging the question…If minimum wage in this country is $x, how is that person going to have healthcare? No generalities. No dodging. HOW is that person going to get his/her healthcare? SPECIFICS!
Until Republicans answer this question, I will never vote Republican again (and I used to). If they answer they come up with is of the form “This person can’t have health care” then I still won’t be voting for them because that is just not a realistic position to take.
To be fair I don’t think they are saying that the poor should not have healthcare, in the sense that if Bill Gates wanted to pay for it they’d be fine. They are saying that they don’t want to pay one penny of their money in support of healthcare for the poor, and that their right to keep their money is more important than the right of people not to die because of inadequate care. They dress this up with free market arguments about how healthcare is so expensive because people have open heart surgery for fun and the like.
So it isn’t that the poor shouldn’t have healthcare, it is that they don’t have the right to healthcare, and if that means they die (or the rest of us pay for it indirectly through higher hospital charges) that is too bad.
