Pay Me Now or Pay Me Later

Romney’s Comments on Health Care (CBS 60 Minutes)

We do provide care for people who don't have insurance. If someone has a heart attack, they don't sit in their apartment and die. We pick them up in an ambulance, and take them to the hospital, and give them care.

Yes, our emergency rooms are the only access to health care for millions of uninsured Americans – but at what cost? Medical care provided through the ER is expensive, typically in excess of $1000.00 for even simple procedures. Unless or until our society is prepared to accept people dying in the streets, we’ll continue to provide them with critical care.

Recognizing that we’ll continue to provide critical care to those in need, does it not make sense that we move treatment from expensive emergency rooms to lower cost urgent care centers? Common sense dictates that it’s financially advisable to provide someone with a $50.00 prescription for antibiotics than to allow a simple infection to progress into a life-threatening event requiring thousands in emergency care. And this argument doesn’t address the moral implications of allowing a large portion of American citizens to suffer from treatable illnesses.