Senator Santorum, as long as the insurance companies are allowed to have an antitrust exemption, there is no free market in the private health insurance system.

And that’s one of the primary reasons why our insurance premiums and healthcare expenditures as a share of GDP are out of control. We currently spend about 17% of our GDP on healthcare (projected to reach an even higher 20-25% in the not-too-distant future) which is much higher than found in any of the other OECD countries. Those other countries range 8-12% of GDP in HC costs (Germany 12%), and most of them also perform significantly better than us on OECD’s healthcare metrics.

Our high cost/GDP structure as well as higher healthcare inflation also leads to ever-increasing medicare/medicaid burden, which, in turn, leads to high budget deficits.

What would you do to bring down HC costs as a share of the GDP dramatically? Would you support eliminating the antitrust exemption for health insurance companies?

to repeal and tweak the private market or what exactly?

HSA’s are nice, but what else did you have in mind? And, how much is this going to cost?

I am certain we will still have much to disagree upon, especially in the area of unions, but this is a good statement of history and intent.

It’s statements like this that keep me from completely ruling out your credibility as a candidate.

Mew

Thanks for reminding voters why NOT to vote for Republicans. Obama does not have to do a thing thanks to you two.

Mr. Santorum just about every time you say what you really think is another vote for President Obama.

Is Rush really sorry?

How would a middle class American with a Health Savings Account afford the cost of care for a condition like your daughter Bella’s that involves multiple infant and pediatric heart surgeries?

Charity?

How could charities work when millionaires such as yourself donate only 1.7% of your million-dollar annual income to charity? How does someone without a million dollar income and lifetime US Congressional health care plan afford such care?

and his pro-Romney “gotcha” journalism that fits right in with the pro-Romney agenda at Fox Noise!

The sleaze-bag charges you of focusing too much on contraception and social issues, only to try to pin you down with the subject and other related issues for close to 90% of the so-called “interview.”

Oh, he does finally ask you about the ecomony for the remaining couple of minutes, so that makes it “alright” I suppose.

Had it been Romney, he’d have asked softball questions and questions about his “business experience,” no doubt.

I’m with you as far as the conservatives needing to unite–sooner, rather than later. If anything, I think you and Newt ought to unite your efforts in throwing out Obama Lite first before going at each other–for which there will be plenty of time later on.

Fight on, Sir! . . . COURAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

but have said that, Obama did get his big gov bill passed, and based it after Romneycare. So that is our battle, and Rick is the only one standing up to really repeal it. Newt is done, he helps Romney at this point, so does Paul. If only we could have a true one on one with Romney.

he was going to stack the deck to get his agenda deemed constitutional.

With your statements attacking college, contraception, and Christians(corrupted by Satan). You are the caricature of Republicans that Democrats have been trying to paint for decades. You have fooled voters into thinking that you are a “true” conservative long enough. You are a big government, big spending, big labor, “politics is a team sport, folks” conservative. You never will, but your withdrawal from this race would be much appreciated. It’s time for the one true small government conservative to retake the lead and the party.

NEWT

Also, your tax plan is a gross example of pandering. If ever implemented, you would corrupt the tax code to an unthinkable degree.

Senator,

This is your strong suit (unlike the moon base post). You were right and ARE right on health care. Romney is wrong. Here are some points you need to hit Romney on:

1. “ NE Journal of Medicine: RomneyCare: 18% increase in Administrators–No Significant Increase in Doctors/Nurses compared to rest of nation”

2. NEJ: “primarily in administrative occupations and (perhaps) patient care support occupations rather than among physicians and nurses

3. Cato Institute quote: “Statistics on waiting times for specialist care in Massachusetts read like a dispatch from Canada”

4. CATO: “Premiums are growing 21 to 46 percent faster than the national average, in part because Massachusetts’ individual mandate has effectively outlawed affordable health plans.”

5. Since Massachusetts has covered just 432,000 previously uninsured residents, the cost of covering a previously uninsured family of four — at least $20,000 — is well above the average cost of an employer-sponsored family policy (about $13,000)

6. Had state officials not done their level best to hide those costs —
the individual mandate pushed 60 percent of the cost off-budget”
, while expanding eligibility for Medicaid pushed another 20 percent onto the federal budget — no one would be hailing Massachusetts as a model

7. “To cope with the cost of its reforms, Massachusetts created a legislative commission that has recommended moving the entire market to a single, Canadian-style payment system that would encourage doctors and hospitals to ration care.”

Here is my original post with links to news articles:

http://www.redstate.com/quill67/2011/12/18/ne-journal-of-medicine-romneycare-18-increase-in-administrators-no-significant-increase-in-doctorsnurses/

you to go bye-bye. You are hurting the party and our chances this fall. I don’t know a single soul who is voting for you.

Governor of MA?

If you don’t like “Romneycare” run in MA and repeal it.

Governor Romney has already committed to repeal Obamacare, regardless of the 15 similarities. There’s no reason to think he won’t do what he can on that front.

I have the same level of desire to live under a Theocracy that I do to live under a Fascist Utopia.

None.

Thank you for staying on the issue of Obamacare Repeal.
I am afraid that Romney, being a Manager… would rather Manage it and how could he possibly turn against his own handiwork?
Anyhow, he is a Manager, and not a leader. He works for someone else as an employee. The Stockholders… the Owners.. he sure didn’t do well for Massachusetts. I am led to believe that the State of Massachusetts is pushing everyone they can onto Medicare to help unload their health care burdens on the rest of the country.

Obamacare and Romneycare ins bad for ALL the States.
( Hey… don’t forget the rest us…)

And speaking of Mitt, I thought you did very well in Washington, especially since you haven’t been at it very long.
Mr. Romney did a dismal job there in a blue State and having been running for over six years… still under 40%
So that translates to over 60% not Romney. Keep pushing.
Thanks again, and good luck.
Mark

Tying Romney to Romneycare and by similarity to Obamacare is actually pretty spot on. Condense it into more of a shorter soundbite hammered home should help you a lot.

Energy should also be stressed, especially when we are at an all time low in drilling approvals, the keystone pipeline was ended by Obama for now and his energy secretary has the gall to state the administration is fine with the way things are going as gas prices start to climb again… You could do far worse than to come out and say you’d fast track the keystone pipeline, improve the rate of drilling approvals and fire the current energy secretary etc etc.

In my opinion the biggest problem you have is not really Romney, it is that Gingrich and you likely attract a lot of similarly inclined voters and are splitting the majority vote while letting Romney look stronger than he is. I’d suggest you and Ginrich talk about this and try to come to something workable, not saying who does what but if you both stay in the race the two of you are, in my opinion, going to essentially battle hard and nobly while eventually handing over the nomination to Romney.

…votes down any bill aimed at repealing ObamaCare, this issue becomes moot.

Whether Romney or Santorum is president in 2013, it now looks very much like they will NOT have a filibuster-proof Senate to work with.

And so, when they introduce a bill to repeal ObamaCare, Barbara Boxer and Bernie Sanders and all the rest of that left-wing crew will filibuster the bill to death. Even if the GOP manages to pick off one or two Dems like Manchin for cloture, they will still fall short of the 60 needed for cloture.

And THIS is why I’m a Romney supporter. He’s a realist, not a fantasist. He proposed to give every state in the Union a waiver on ObamaCare precisely because he knows that without a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, full repeal of ObamaCare is impossible.

Romney has shown he can make the best of a bad situation, not fantasize about how wonderful it would be if that bad situation did not exist.

however, there’s a big difference in the reasoning as to why they would favor repeal.
Romney is against Obamacare because he thinks that it takes money from the wrong things, such as medicare. It just doesn’t make financial sense in the way it was written and will be implemented. He seems to make the argument that the foundational ideas of Obamacare are probably ok, but the method in which it is financed makes it different from Romneycare in MA.
Santorum believes that Obamacare needs to be repealed because it is unconstitutional to mandate people buy anything as a condition of being alive. The principle of having a top-down federal approach at fixing healthcare by mandating what kinds of insurance must be provided and what is to be included is a nonstarter. He also seems to be concerned that Obamacare will lead to rationing of healthcare, beginning with the disabled and the elderly.

that’s the new mantra so use it as others are doing the same. Run with it Rick. The followers have become as blind as the people who want socialized healthcare. People tried to tell them but no.