Redstate

By Leon H Wolf Posted in 2008 — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

I've not said much about any of the candidates recently, for a number of reasons, chief of which is that I, like many others, are already feeling a little primary sniping fatigue (get ready folks, this one is really going to be a bloodbath.) Also, I feel like I've already said all that I need to say on the subject of Romney's position on abortion, and those who remain unconvinced at this point will probably remain so no matter what. It's not exactly like there's new evidence coming out about speeches that he's already given. I personally don't find his story credible; others do. I'm prepared to move on from that point.

Then comes an examination of Governor Romney's Healthcare plan, which has turned up some stuff that I think is genuinely news, so I'm going to share it. A lot of folks have debated whether it's a good idea (or a conservative one) to force individuals to buy health insurance, but that's outside the purview of this particular post. What this post is concerned with is that, apparently, Governor Romney's famous healthcare plan, which he boasts about wherever he goes, includes taxpayer-funded abortions.

Now, I'm open to suggestions that I'm interpreting the facts of this wrong, and if so, I'm not shy whatsoever about issuing public retractions, but I don't see how that's the case here. The cornerstone of Romney's plan is called "Commonwealth Care", and the Mass Government site has information concerning it here and here (warning, .doc). Now, as I read about this plan from the first link, I am told that Commonwealth Care allows Massachusetts citizens to have access to private healthcare plans, but that the program itself is "funded by the state." The fact that the state is paying for at least a portion of this healthcare with taxpayer dollars seems to be confirmed by the fact that according to this, certain people pay nothing at all for the coverage, and instead only the co-pays (others pay more for the coverage based on a sliding income scale. Clearly, government subsidization is going on here. Why is this a problem? Well, right here and on page 6 of the .doc file, it indicates very clearly that abortion services are covered by this.

Now, if there's anything I've learned by this point, it's that most Romney supporters will not be bothered by this, or anything else the Governor does or has done, but I certainly hope that either I'm reading the facts wrong or that the Governor is willing to explain how he is willing to state that he is at once very proud of this plan, and at the same time that every action he has taken as Governor of Massachusetts has been "on the side of life."