Yes, that's right. After insulting the British for being weak with their Security - as if they never had to deal with a decades long conflict which involved random violence and acts of terrorism - insulting the Palestinians for the "cultural" deficiencies while completely mis-stating the depth of the income disparity between them and the Israelis by an order of magnitude - during the next stop in his oh-no-he-did-Not-just-say-that-Tour Willard Mittance Romney XIV has proven that he has terminal silver spoon in mouth disease.
At the fund-raiser on Monday, Mr. Romney talked favorably about Israel’s economy and gross domestic product.
“Do you realize what health care spending is as a percentage of the G.D.P. in Israel? Eight percent,” he said. “You spend eight percent of G.D.P. on health care. You’re a pretty healthy nation. We spend 18 percent of our G.D.P. on health care, 10 percentage points more. That gap, that 10 percent cost, compare that with the size of our military — our military which is 4 percent, 4 percent. Our gap with Israel is 10 points of G.D.P. We have to find ways — not just to provide health care to more people, but to find ways to fund and manage our health care costs.”
You want to know how Israel manages to keep their costs so low and produce health outcomes - lower infant mortality rates, longer life span, lower mortality due to heart disease - that makes ours appear shameful?
They have Universal Health Care with a Government Enforced Individual Mandate - that's how.
Here's how the U.S. Ranked in GDP spending on Health Care in 2008.
Via
Thinkprogress.
Israel spends less on health care because of a universal health system that requires everyone to have insurance. Every Israeli citizen has the obligation to purchase health care services through one of the country’s four HMOs since government officials approved the National Health Insurance Law in 1995. People pay for 40 percent of their HMO’s costs through income-related contributions collected through the tax system, and the state pays the remaining 60 percent. And by many standards, Israelis are getting better health care than U.S. citizens. The infant mortality rate is much lower, and its mortality rate due to heart disease is half the U.S. rate.
We expect that from Thinkprogress, but even
Forbes is smacking Romney upside the head over this.
With a life-expectancy rate that is the 4th best in the world (the United States is 38th) and a reputation for delivering high-quality care to all of its citizens by utilizing the most advanced medical technology available in a hospital system we can only envy from afar, Governor Romney is right to be impressed with the Israelis’ ability to deliver excellent care while keeping spending down to 8 percent of GDP as compared to 18 percent here in the United States.
If only Romney’s appreciation of Israel’s success did not fly smack in the face of his constant, ideologically based rhetoric guaranteed to insure that only the wealthiest Americans get a taste of the healthcare Israelis receive as their birthright.
Or does the Governor simply not understand that Israel’s healthcare success story is the direct result of the nation’s socialized healthcare system that has existed since the country’s founding in 1948 and institutionalized by law in 1995?
Ouch, that's gotta sting coming from Forbes.
Here's a State By State Chart of the % of Uninsured in the U.S.
See that state on the far left with the really low number - that's Massachusetts, Mitt Romney's former State with the Universal Healthcare and that horribly oppressive newly Constitutionally Minted Individual Mandate Death-Panel March Thingee. See that State on the far right with nearly
25% of it's citizens going without Health Care? That's TEXAS, where they are currently threatening to block the expansion of Medicare that was included in the ACA because the Supreme Court said the Federal Government couldn't make them take the money for it.
Which direction do you think Mitt Romney (and his Billionaire Puppeteer Owners like Sheldon Adelson) will take us if he's elected, toward Massachusetts and Israel or toward Texas?
Vyan