Pawlenty: Don’t follow Mass. lead on health care
“We now have the federal government reaching so far inside our society, dictating whether human behavior is good or not,” Pawlenty said. “That is a quantum leap, and it should be alarming to people.” Massachusetts state Treasurer Tim Cahill warned that a national version of the Massachusetts law could bankrupt the country in four years.
Kevin Landrigan via nashua telegraph.com
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a potential Republican presidential contender in 2012, said universal health care in Massachusetts is no model the nation should follow.
“The plan is dramatically propped up by federal money,” he said. “Take that away and there would be dire economic consequences.
“Looking at the Massachusetts experience, it would not be one I would want for the country to follow any further.’’
Now that Congress passed the health care reform law, the Massachusetts health experience could become even more a critical bellwether for Mitt Romney’s second run for president, in 2012.
During an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Pawlenty didn’t mention Romney by name, but he relayed how Massachusetts state Treasurer Tim Cahill warned that a national version of the Massachusets law could bankrupt the country in four years.
Cahill is running as an independent for governor.
Romney will return to the state April 8 for a book tour that will include a visit to the Institute of Politics at St. Anselm College in Manchester.
Pawlenty lamented there were plenty of what he called “bipartisan areas of agreement’’ on health care far short of the national reform, including a new payment system, built-in incentives for healthy outcome, offering insurance across state lines and tort reform. He asked his state attorney general to join the 13 states suing the Obama administration over the law.
“We now have the federal government reaching so far inside our society, dictating whether human behavior is good or not,” Pawlenty said. “That is a quantum leap, and it should be alarming to people.”
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