And #Romneyshambles talks health care:
Romney, who championed the Massachusetts health care mandate, but is an opponent of the federal mandate passed by President Barack Obama, marveled at how little Israel spends on health care relative to the United States.
“When our health care costs are completely out of control. Do you realize what health care spending is as a percentage of the GDP in Israel? 8 percent. You spend 8 percent of GDP on health care. And youâre a pretty healthy nation,” Romney told donors at a fundraiser at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, speaking of a health care system that is compulsory for Israelis and funded by the government. “We spend 18 percent of our GDP on health care. 10 percentage points more. That gap, that 10 percent cost, let me compare that with the size of our military. Our military budget is 4 percent. Our gap with Israel is 10 points of GDP. We have to find ways, not just to provide health care to more people, but to find ways to finally manage our health care costs.”
Yes, we need to find ways to manage our health costs. Like, for example, admitting that you titans of industry and the free market have failed us, and we follow the route of every other modern nation in the world.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
You got to love how he undermines his own arguments. So is the standard bearer of the GOP advocating single payer heathcare?
russell
?!?!?!?!??!
Somebody needs to update their “budget facts and figures” flash cards.
Wazmo
And of course, the Very Serious People in the media will hand-wave this off and find some other faux outrage to champion.
brent
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: I don’t think the Israeli health care system is Single Payer exactly. I will look it up a little later but I think they have something more like heavily regulated insurance that people are mandated to buy. Something like what we have in mind with ACA but with fewer insurance options and much heavier regulation. Could be wrong. Should be easy enough to check in any case.
Mark S.
God, I wonder how the hell Israel does it. They must really harness the power of the free market to provide health care for their citizens.
danimal
I thought Mitt Romney was a pretty smart guy.
Thought is, in this case, past tense. What an idiot. Gee, maybe we need a different health care system, Mr. RMoney. I wonder who has put together a comprehensive plan to control costs?
Well, I seem to remember a governor in MA who came up with a decent plan, but his brains have apparently turned to shit in the past ten years.
rda909
Damn, this dude is dumb.
Mike Goetz
Socialized medicine must be one of those cultural differences that make the Israelis inherently superior to the Palestinians.
Romney’s Israel stop has been grotesque. He may as well have just squatted down and squeezed out a link directly on to the Middle East peace process. Shambles, indeed.
Mark S.
@russell:
He’s talking about a percentage of GDP, not a percentage of the federal budget.
WereBear
If Romney continues to be a laughingstock, even the MSM and all his money will not save him. The one thing the wingnuts cannot stand is those who point and laugh.
burritoboy
Apparently, Mitt doesn’t understand that Israel was founded explicitly as a socialist country. The two main parties in 1948 were Mapai (the moderate socialists headed by Ben Gurion and Golda Meir) and Mapam (the communist party). While Israel has somewhat moved away from socialism over the past 30 years, many of it’s basic institutions remain clearly socialist in inspiration. Private ownership of real estate, for example, still remains significantly more rare in Israel.
Zifnab
Sorry, John. Those statements from Romney were for Israelis. They weren’t for you. Just clam up your ears. FOX and the Rush-babies will give you the proper spin, because you can’t trust those lying ears of yours.
Brian R.
So he’s praising a universal system that outsources care to private practitioners but requires individuals to take part when it’s in Israel but attacking a universal system that outsources care to private practitioners but requires individuals to take part when it’s in America?
Is he a fucking moron?
Dusty
@russell: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute says it’s 4.7%. Close enough.
Villago Delenda Est
To make that transition, the Rmoneytron’s firmware would have to be completely replaced, and a totally new OS installed on the HD.
It would be down for one to two FUs before it could make another public appearance.
Geeze, the Israelis pay a lower percentage of their GDP for health care because they’ve REMOVED THE FUCKING YOU MUST MAKE A PROFIT OFF THE SUFFERING OF PEOPLE factor.
Holy shit, we can’t have THAT!
cathyx
And why are our healthcare costs 18% of GDP, Mitt? Come on big guy, connect the dots and finish the thought.
Jennifer
Doesn’t Israel have universal health care? I thought it did. In fact, it not only has universal health care, it mandates purchase of health insurance.
Perhaps someone will explain to Rmoney that this is why the Israelis spend a lot less on health care than we do.
The Dangerman
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
He’s not the standard bearer yet. I’m not saying that he won’t be the nominee, but the chance of him not being the nominee has gone from absolute zero to some nonzero probability. Sure, still very, VERY small, but his base can’t be pleased he complimented Socialized medicine when Obamacare is THE issue for them. Couple that with his absolute manhandling of the tax return issue and …
kc
Is Rmoney not aware that Israel is a socialist country?
Linnaeus
@brent:
This Wikipedia article on health care in Israel is pretty informative.
Short version: it’s a mix of public and private providers. All Israeli citizens are guaranteed health care services under the law, whether they use public providers or go through an HMO. There is a health insurance tax to pay for it.
rlrr
@cathyx:
And why are our healthcare costs 18% of GDP, Mitt? Come on big guy, connect the dots and finish the thought.
“Because, Obama, that’s why.”
— Mitt Romney
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@The Dangerman: ,.. and being called a “wimp” in public on the cover of Newsweek. Frankly I think that will be consider the moment when it ended for the Great White Mormon Hope.
Zach
It’ll probably be only a few years before the Masters of the Universe decide that socialized health care is a good idea. There aren’t all that many people who benefit from our idiotic system and we waste almost a trillion dollars a year that could go to tax cuts for the rich instead. It’s the closest thing to free money that exists in the Federal budget. It would also bail out a lot of companies that, by design, can’t afford promised health benefits.
Jennifer
From the Health Care in Israel wiki:
Mark S.
@kc:
After this foreign tour, I’m beginning to wonder if Mitt has ever read a book in his life. I’m not sure Hermann Cain would embarrass himself this bad.
gypsy howell
Is he also saying that we need to close the gap on the % of GDP going to the military too? (The romneyshambles are unclear on this point) Lucky for Israel, they have a sugar daddy who provides billions in “aid” to their military every year. Who will the sugar daddy be for increasing our military expenditures?
OTOH, that war with Iran that he and Bibi are planning is going to cost a boatload more money, so maybe he has a point.
NancyDarling
@Brian R.: Yes.
wrb
This is kinda interesting. It shows that although, being shameless, he’s running against the ACA, the percentage of our GDP going to health care does still bother his MBA/vulture capitalist brain, just as it did when he was gov.
It is an inefficiency. It is un-competitive Un-competitive inefficiencies must die.
Haydnseek
The hits just keep on coming! Next stop, Poland. POLAND! This sausage looks like it came from the 7-11! Call the first responders now, so they can be ready for the inevitable train wreck….
russell
Thank you. I’m actually glad to understand that the error was on my part, and not on Romney’s.
Not to quibble, but US defense spending / GDP is about 4.7%, closer to 5 than 4.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@gypsy howell:
Romney will socialize medical care in the US and then used the savings as the Iran war tax.
Brian R.
@NancyDarling:
To quote Homer Simpson: Do I know what rhetorical means?!
Villago Delenda Est
@gypsy howell:
Just so long as Rmoney spawn don’t shed any blood in this fun little adventure, it’s all good, I’m sure.
lamh35
Good Morning.
New portrait of Obama and his cabinet members. Can you name more than 2?? I named all but 6!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/whitehouse/7676394186/sizes/z/in/photostream/
karen marie
@brent: According to Wikipedia, Mittens is a c*nt.
Scratch
This is just way beyond funny. Romney can’t help pandering to whatever audience he’s in front of, if he wants their support. With this, he’s going to piss off his Republican base which is vowing to repeal Obamacare, a base with which he already has enough trouble. Although maybe he figures that base is so radicalized they are voting for Anybody but Obama and not really for Romney. But it does nothing to win him support from those voters who want Obamacare to take full effect.
So why the hell did he start talking about Israeli healthcare? There’s no way in the world he would want to disparage it because he was wanting to pander to them, but by praising it so as to pander to them, he shoots himself in the foot.
Next up, in Poland he praises them for their lack of gun violence and restrictions on gun ownership.
different-church-lady
And if I believed for one second that you and your party would actually do something towards that end you’d have a shot at my vote.
karen marie
@Mark S.: How does something that costs more comprise less of the GDP?
Mark S.
@gypsy howell:
I reread it, and I have no idea why he brought up military spending. It had nothing to do with what he was talking about, unless he thinks 4 is almost the same as 10.
Mark S.
@karen marie:
I don’t understand what you’re asking.
brent
@karen marie: Right. That description is pretty much what I thought they had. So no, Romney is not supporting Single payer. His statements are supporting a system that is even more Obamacarish than Obamacare. The dude is seriously dumber than his hair.
Reasonable 4ce
Keep your soshulist hands off my soshulist Israeli heath care.
Remember the infamous special election in New York’s (former) 9th Congressional district last year, after Weiner resigned? Bob Turner, the Repuke candidate, won an upset victory. I wish I still had the link, but I distinctly recall reading an article (I think it was the New York Times) quoting some people who voted for Turner. One was a woman who said she didn’t care what Turner’s position on Medicare is, because she would eventually go to Israel and get universal health care there.
But here’s some good news: Turner will soon be an ex-Congressman. His newly gerrymandered district is mostly African-American. He tried to run for the US Senate seat, but got his ass kicked in the Repuke primary last month.
RosiesDad
My mom fell at our hotel in Jerusalem during a visit in 2006. She was taken by ambulance to Haddassah Ein Keren hospital, admitted through the ER and kept for outpatient observation for 36 hours. In that time, she had x-rays to look for fractures, a CT of her head and dopplers of her carotids to rule out a stroke or other intracranial disease as a cause of her fainting/falling and then wound care. The cost? $1500, which is the flat rate per day fee for non-residents of the country.
On the other hand, her attending ER physician earns the equivalent of $1000/month (she was a transplant from the Philly suburbs, not far from where we live) but becoming wealthy definitely takes a back seat to providing health care for the Israeli medical community.
WereBear
I just had a fairly non-political person tell me they have heard of the “Mormon prophecy” about Romney; that they believe he is “destined to rule”?
I said, yes, there was, the “White Horse Prophecy” and he will “rule as a Mormon.” I think there was a loss of blood to their face.
If this is getting out into the rumor mill, I think it will have an impact. I totally believe the Evangelicals do not know it, because they live in a bubble.
Someone should tell them.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
Mitt wants to be the CEO of the American corporation. All he sees is that we spend 18% of our GDP on healthcare, while the Israelis spend 8%. He doesn’t see or care that it’s because of their government managed healthcare system. If, in two different universes where Mitt is president, one creates universal healthcare, and the other automatically kills and burns anyone who visits the doctor, the outcome is that the total cost is 8%, he will be happy in both of them.
karen marie
@karen marie: Oh, duh — it’s the overall cost, not cost to taxpayers because we don’t have universal healthcare.
Mittens ever think that perhaps if we did have true universal healthcare we’d be more like Israel?
kc
@Mark S.:
At least Herman Cain would be intentionally funny . . .
kc
@RosiesDad:
Well, now, that’s just plain unamerican.
jl
At least Mitt got off his bigot/stereotype race/ethnicity
pandering wagon for awhile. (Edit: but watch out, Mitt, the fundie Xtianist vote will start to doubt you. Have you abandoned them with your five minutes of silence on crazy bigoted fundie talking points? I dunnoo…..)
I am not a big fan of Mitt’s
Likud, er, Republican foreign policy stance in Mideast, but if he wants to import the Israeli health care system, I go with that. Perhaps the ‘hand of Providence’ in Israel has removed the big gummint kooties involved inCanadian German Swedish Australian Swiss French Netherlands Massachusettsetc etc health care polcies.Health care in Israel
“Health care in Israel is universal and participation in a medical insurance plan is compulsory. Health care coverage is administered by a small number of organizations, with funding from the government. All Israeli citizens are entitled to the same Uniform Benefits Package, regardless of which organization they are a member of, and treatment under this package is funded for all citizens regardless of their financial means. Generally, health care in Israel is of high-quality and is delivered in an efficient and effective manner. Partly as a result of this, at an overall 82 years, Israelis enjoy the fourth-longest life expectancy in the world as of 2012.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_Israel
So let’s see here:
universal coverage check
basic minimum uniform conprehensive coverage policies check
measure to insure transparency in market prices check
other ‘checks’ can be read in the rest of the Wiki entry.
Cassidy
@lamh35: I honestly thought that was going to be another McNaughton masterpiece with Obama surrounded by satan, the pope, some dark skinned people, and everyone else that idiot thinks is evil.
PeakVT
@lamh35: I failed miserably. I can put names to faces for seven of twenty-two.
Gex
Well, let’s do what Israel does then! Great idea Mr. Romney!
Gex
@wrb: Inefficiencies are where the Bain types find their profits. Of course, they tend to think paying any American workers is inefficient…
jl
More gory details about
death panelist gummint run oppressive unresponsive and resulting health disaster mass agony and death old people murdering soylent green Satanic totalitarian unsustainable irresponsible bankrupting lazy lucky ducky poors getting welfareblessed by Diving Providence Israeli health care system here.http://www.euro.who.int/en/who-we-are/partners/observatory/health-systems-in-transition-hit-series/hit-summaries/israel-hit-summary-2004
click link on page for pdf report.
dead existentialist
FYWP
ETA: Here’s the World Bank’s assessment of military spending as % of GDP. Compared to the Gulf states and Israel, we’re pikers.
(Sorry if my eated comment posts, thus making this a duplicate. I said FYWP.)
liberal
@Zach:
Are you sure you mean “socialized health care”? Or “socialized health insurance”? Not at all the same thing.
You’re kidding, right? That ~ 10% of wasted GDP is going into someone’s pockets, and it’s not all health insurance CEOs and stockholders.
liberal
@gypsy howell:
Yep.
Jennifer
@WereBear: This needs to go viral on facebook.
I can’t imagine too many of the taligelicals rushing out to vote for a guy whose religion says an adulterous prophet had done more for mankind than Jesus himself.
liberal
@dead existentialist:
It’s pretty strange, considering the massive military threats we face from other nation-states to the north and south of us. Not to mention things like near-constant terror over possible naval threats to the east (e.g. Bermuda).
liberal
@Jennifer:
Doesn’t matter. There’s one ring to rule them all, and it’s called “cutting taxes on the filthy rich to zero.”
lamh35
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: naw the media is already trying to classify Newsweek article as hit job. and this is from MSM, not just Faux News
catclub
@Zach: “Itâs the closest thing to free money that exists in the Federal budget”
Except a whole lot of healthcare spending and insurance is not IN the Federal budget. We are wasteful because health insurance is primarily routed through employers.
jl
Any gluttons for punishment out there? Here is the full 200 page 2009 report on Israeli health care system. Site is slow, so best to right click and download rather than try to open over the internet.
Now that we know from Mitt Himself that what Israel and its people are blessed by Divine Providence, would we not be a stubborn and stiff necked people who walk not in Ways of the Lord if we do not adopt this system?
Yes, we would.
And since US Xtianists are doing Israel such a big favor by doing their best to help out the Lord in getting a world destroying Armageddon started right on top of the country asap, and giving the Jews a one time one late and last chance free offer of converting or burning in Hell forever, does not Israel owe us something? Why, yes, they do.
http://www.euro.who.int/en/who-we-are/partners/observatory/health-systems-in-transition-hit-series/countries/israel-hit-2009
Clearly, it is God’s will that we adopt every last jot and tittle of this Israeli health care system, and they owe us for all the favors the US fundies have planned for them.
It’s a win win, and good business deal, you ask me.
catclub
@liberal: and since money is fungible, it pays for abortions in Israel. Call the Hyde amendment!
wrb
@jl:
How could anyone oppose adopting The Holy Land’s health care system?
Holiest plan this side of planet Kolob.
catclub
@jl: mandatory coverage for abortion? Check
LanceThruster
Glob of Kolob, how I hate having that maroon lecturing me on anything!
liberal
@catclub:
Heh.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@lamh35:
Sure it’s a hit, but a hit from whom? The crazy eyes cover during the primary was the single the GOP leadership had vetoed Bachmman’s candidacy.
Ruckus
@danimal:
Dude has always been shit for brains. He just started at the top and never had to work his way up. As the Peter Principal pointed out people generally rise till they fail or at least just can’t climb the next step. Mittens started at the top, above his pay grade as it were, and has just been coasting along all these years. His ego is his driving force not his smarts. We are just seeing a very public display of what top of the curve failure looks like.
pseudonymous in nc
@brent:
It’s German-style health funds. Highly regulated, heavily subsidised by taxes, fixed prices for treatment and medication, guaranteed issue and very low premiums. One of the strongest remaining institutional vestiges of Labor Zionism.
Funny thing is, I’ve asked before whether the GOP’s defend-Israel-for-the-Second-Coming brigade would support emulating the Israeli healthcare system in the US.
Sloegin
4-5 percent of GDP for defense doesn’t sound like a crazy big amount until you compare it to other 1st world countries… which spend somewhere around 1 to 2 percent of their GDP.
burnspbesq
@jl:
Freud would like to have a word with you about that “typo.”
jl
@burnspbesq: The Olympics is on. I got watching
smoking hot chicksthe world’s best athletes competing in sport we seldom see on my mind.jenn
@lamh35: Honestly, I didn’t like the article either. I thought, as written it read more like a hit piece than journalism. He spent more time wanking about his thesis, and bringing in the manliness of Reagan, than he did supporting his thesis with facts.
Ed
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_Israel
Health care in Israel is universal and participation in a medical insurance plan is compulsory
they have control of Health Care so the can CONTROL costs. Here we have NO CONTROL ( thanks Republican idiots ) So the costs are out of control. Is Mitt that stupid?
jl
@Ed:
” Is Mitt that stupid? ”
That web you’re weaving web tangled much, Mitt? I hope so.
Definite “fine art of pandering” Fail.
shortstop
With Mitt’s help, the Obama ad team can knock off a week’s worth of work in about 20 minutes.
yopd1
Rebate checks are in the mail for the ACA. I’m wondering how many folks besides the Conservative commentators are truly pissed about this?
feebog
I wonder if Team Obama has the quote in an ad already. Surely they won’t pass this up.
JCT
@feebog:
They have to stop laughing hysterically first.
This guy will truly say anything.
Bruce S
@Mark S.:
He’s still off by 15%
And, while Israel spends a higher % of GDP on the military, our spending per capita is higher than theirs. Which is amazing when you stop and think about the situations of both countries. Our spending is more than 10 times “the Soviet Union” that Mitt worries about, 6 times China’s and nearly 100 times Iran’s. And of the top 20, only 2 are countries that wouldn’t be considered official allies or friendly to the US. (That’s if you consider China – which is helping to finance our debt and manufactures much of what American’s buy – “not friendly.”)
It’s pretty insane.
Bruce S
Good article on Israeli health care system:
http://forward.com/articles/158550/israels-health-care-outpaces-us/?p=all
Bruce S
And, of course, there’s the Israeli government’s role in the “start-up” economic sector, which Romney aide Dan Senor promoted in a 2009 book/ From the OECD Observor, based on info from Senor’s “Start-Up Nation”:
âGovernment policy was instrumental in unleashing the potential of this abundant human capital,â says Ms Berry. The technological incubator programme was set up in 1991, in part to provide these skilled immigrants with funding and know-how to become successful entrepreneurs. It was run by the Office of the Chief Scientist, which funded potential entrepreneurs. Since the first companies emerged from the incubator programme in 1993, 61% have secured follow-on funding and 40% are active to this day. The private sector has since invested over $2.5 billion in incubator graduates, according to the OECD.
“At the core of Israeli innovation policy is the chief scientistâs matching grants programme. Through this initiative, firms submit R&D proposals to the chief scientist, and grants are awarded on a competitive basis, with between 66 and 90% of the research costs covered. âWe reviewed proposals according to their technical and commercial feasibility, risks and the potential for projects to generate expertise,â says Ms Berry. These grants are actually high-risk loansâsuccessful projects must pay back the Office of the Chief Scientist the funding received via a deduction of a small percentage of annual sales.
“Another government programme set up in the early 1990s, Yozma, has been credited with creating Israelâs vibrant venture capital industry. Founded with a budget of $100 million in 1993, Yozma established 10 venture capital funds, contributing up to 40% towards the total capital investment. The rest was provided by foreign investors, who were attracted by risk guarantees. Nine of the 15 companies that received Yozma investment went public or were acquired. âIn 1997 the government received its original investment with 50% interest and the funds were privatised,â recalls Ms Berry. A recent OECD report on innovation calls Yozma âthe most successful and original programme in Israelâs relatively long history of innovation policy.â “