General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDid Romney Stay Employed by Bain to Keep His Health Insurance?
By David Callahan
Posted: 07/17/2012 3:54 pm
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There are any number of reasons why Romney might not have wanted to sever his ties with Bain. But here's one that nobody has yet explored: So his wife, Ann, would not lose her health insurance as she battled with multiple sclerosis.
Put another way, was Mitt Romney -- for all his millions -- effectively "job locked" at Bain by a broken health insurance system that might have made it impossible to find coverage for Ann Romney if Mitt lost his insurance through Bain?
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Ann Romney became ill with multiple sclerosis in 1998, a year before her husband went to work for SLOC. Given her condition, it could have been very difficult for the Romneys to get health insurance through whatever insurer was covering SLOC employees. Utah, with its conservative regulatory climate, was not a place you wanted to try to get health insurance with a pre-existing condition. In 1999, the state had no laws stopping health insurance companies from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions or mandating that such people be offered an alternative insurance choice. (As of 2008, only five states had laws mandating that insurers sell policies to all who apply and fewer then ten states said that alternatives had to be available, according to a study by Families USA.)
Like most states, Utah allowed insurers to charge the customers they did accept any premiums they wanted and discriminate in their rates against less healthy customers. Still, it's hard to see why any insurer would have accepted Ann Romney as a customer, given the high costs of treating MS -- even in its mild forms.
In short, it's perfectly possible -- indeed likely -- that Ann Romney would not have been able to get any health insurance at all in Utah.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-callahan/romney-bain-health-insurance_b_1677821.html
DJ13
(23,671 posts)targetpractice
(4,919 posts)They don't need insurance, but if they are entitled to it they's take it.
Cali_Democrat
(30,439 posts)If his offshore tax shelters are any indication, this guy wouldn't want to pay for Ann's care all on his own dime.
IggleDoer
(1,186 posts)... it would be a tax!
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,683 posts)It's just the rest of us poor saps who have to have insurance.
Ruby the Liberal
(26,219 posts)nickle and dime loopholes he paid people hundreds of dollars an hour to justify - why would he go out of pocket for medical when he can stick the employer-based health insurance company with the bills?
Those coins add up!
treestar
(82,383 posts)so they can keep the insurance - even if there are better opportunities somewhere.
And if they lose their job they can pay the huge Cobra premiums or go uninsured.
Don't let them use that sympathy tactic to make it excusable.
samsingh
(17,595 posts)Cali_Democrat
(30,439 posts)Ruby the Liberal
(26,219 posts)Into the bookmark files.