Appearing on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Mitt Romney unknowingly defended the individual mandate, currently before the United States Supreme Court. Jay Leno asked the Republican front-runner how he would provide healthcare for those Americans with a pre-existing condition.
“People with pre-existing conditions, as long as they have been insured before, they are going to be able to continue to have insurance,” Romney said, describing his vision for health care if the Affordable Care Act were to be struck down or repealed.
“Suppose they haven’t been insured,” Leno countered.
“If they are 45 years old and they show up and say I want insurance because I have heart disease, it’s like, ‘Hey guys. We can’t play the game like that. You’ve got to get insurance when you are well and then if you get ill, you are going to be covered,’” Romney responded.
The individual mandate mentioned in the president’s healthcare plan requires that all American purchase healthcare coverage when they’re well. Doing so, the Administration argues, will be the only way to guarantee that Americans with pre-existing conditions are not dropped by their insurance providers.
Although Mitt Romney signed the same bill into law as governor of Massachusetts, he is joined by other Republicans as they mount a valiant effort to get President Obama’s Healthcare reform overturned by the Supreme Court or repealed altogether. They’ve classified the mandate that everyone purchase healthcare when they’re well as unconstitutional.
