Mitt Romney: People Don’t Die At Home Because Of Lack Of Insurance

Mitt Romney is receiving heavy criticism for comments made in an interview on Wednesday saying that Americans do not die at home from a lack of insurance.

Romney made the comments to the editorial board of The Columbus Dispatch on Wednesday, minimizing the harm for Americans who do not have health care. Romney stated:

“We don’t have a setting across this country where if you don’t have insurance, we just say to you, ‘Tough luck, you’re going to die when you have your heart attack.’ No, you go to the hospital, you get treated, you get care, and it’s paid for, either by charity, the government or by the hospital. We don’t have people that become ill, who die in their apartment because they don’t have insurance.”

During the meeting with The Columbus Dispatch, Mitt Romney continued to pledge to repeal the Affordable Care Act (better known as Obamacare) but assured that his plan will still require insurance companies to accept, without raising prices, people with pre-existing conditions.

While Romney’s statement is correct that federal law requires hospitals to treat people without insurance, The Examiner notes that people are routinely turned away from hospitals and denied care, even young mothers with sick infants.

A Reuters article from 2009 reported on a study that showed some people without health insurance had a 40 percent increase in risk of death than those who are covered. Study co-author Dr. Steffie Woolhandler stated:

“For any doctor … it’s completely a no-brainer that people who can’t get health care are going to die more from the kinds of things that health care is supposed to prevent.”

A different study showed that, in 2010, more than 26,000 people died in America from a lack of insurance, showing that the second half of the Republican candidate’s statement is false.

What do you think of Mitt Romney’s comment, “We don’t have people that become ill, who die in their apartment because they don’t have insurance”?