Last week, I wrote about a law under consideration by the Massachusetts legislature that would require every employer with 10 or more employees to either provide health insurance for their employees or pay a tax assessed by the state. Now comes word that Governor Mitt Romney, a Republican and apparent contender for the 2008 Presidential nomination, may actually let this pernicious legislation become law.
BOSTON (AP) — Gov. Mitt Romney said Monday he has yet to decide whether he favors a legislative proposal to assess a fee on companies that do not provide health insurance to their employees, but he suggested a reason he might support it.
The Republican chief executive, speaking with reporters after a breakfast speech to a business group, said the state already charges businesses that cover their employees an additional fee of $62 per worker to fund the so-called “free care pool” for indigent care.
For that reason, the proposed $295-per-worker assessment, which would be charged on companies that do not provide insurance, could be viewed as an alteration of a targeted, existing fee, rather than a new tax.
Since taking office in 2003, Romney has insisted he will not support any new tax, although he has supported an array of increases in fees and fines that he argues are targeted. He is especially loathe to break his campaign pledge as he considers a run for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.
“I’m going to see how this is characterized as it’s related to use by employees of the free care pool — is it instead something that looks like a broad-based fee? — and I think how I will react to it will depend in part on how it’s applied and to whom,” the governor said after a speech to the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce.
In other words, Governor Romney’s position on this proposed law comes down to a game of semantics. If the penalty fee imposed for not providing health insurance is a “new tax”, he’s against it. If, however, its merely an expansion of an already existing program, he’s all in favor of it. Nowhere is there any discussion of principles. Nowhere is there any suggestion by the Governor that the state has no right forcing employers to provide health insurance, or penalizing them if they don’t.
I will admit to not knowing much about Governor Romney. Obviously, any Republican who is elected statewide in Massachusetts will not by your typical Republican. If his position on this legislation is any indication of what his core beliefs are, however, to the extent he has any core beliefs, then it’s pretty clear to me that he does not belong anywhere on a Republican ticket in 2008.
I am willing to consider evidence about Romney to the contrary, but this doesn’t make me think very positively about him.
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Technorati Tags: Massachusetts, Health Care, Republicans, GOP, 2008 Election, Mitt Romney, Politics
