Mitt Romney made his strongest point in the debate when he defended his healthcare plan and outlined his revisions, Betsy McCaughey, former lieutenant governor of New York, told Newsmax.TV in an exclusive interview.
President Barack Obama, McCaughey said, tried to pull a fast one when he said that benefits of seniors would not change under Obamacare. Romney then reminded him that his plan cuts $716 billion from Medicare.
Watch the exclusive interview here.
“He really tried to pull a fast one tonight by telling seniors that their benefits won’t change under the Obama health law when, in fact, if there isn’t money to pay for those benefits, of course they will change,” she said. “Romney did focus on the important fact that the Obama health laws take $716 billion away from Medicare over the next decade to pay for most of this health law. Most of this health law is paid for by cuts to Medicare and as Romney pointed out, seniors are going to suffer.”
In discussing the Massachusetts healthcare law, Romney provided a clear contrast in terms of making the case of being able to work with the other side. McCaughey said it was also important that “the Romney health plan in Massachusetts was not paid for by taking healthcare away from seniors and more than half of the Obama health law is paid for by reducing the healthcare the seniors will get over the next decade.”
McCaughey agreed that Romney made his strongest argument in the debate when he defended his healthcare plan, especially when “he reminded the viewers in his closing statement that because of the $716 billion taken out of Medicare over the next decade, hospitals will not be accepting Medicare, so seniors will have no place to go, doctors will stop accepting Medicare so seniors will lose their doctors.”
She continued: “This is really the critical issue…where will seniors go when hospitals stop accepting Medicare? The third point that Romney made, and he made it several times during the debate, is this board he referred to, IPAD, Independent Payment Advisory Board, the president tried to bamboozle the audience that this board cannot make decisions about the treatments you get, but the truth is that this board can decide how much doctors and hospitals and other providers will be paid for those treatments. And if you tell a doctor we’re only going to pay you a few dollars for a hip replacement surgery, no doctor is going to be willing to perform that surgery.”
McCaughey said the voucher program would have been better off unmentioned by Romney.
“I think he could’ve been a little more effective in not even discussing it,” she said. “We also got some specifics in terms of Medicaid in terms of how Governor Romney would treat this with the states, saying he’d give them the same money they got last year, plus inflation, plus one percent.”
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