Mitt Romney in '08?

Mass. Governor Mitt Romney (R) just pushed through a bill that would require all of his state's residents to buy health insurance. I'm not too thrilled about the government telling me how to spend my money, I'll tell you that right off the bat. I first heard about the news of the bill while watching national news coverage in my office last night. However, when I was at home, I saw an interview with Mr. Romney about his health care plan. He says his state will pay a portion of the insurance premium for those "who can't afford it." He used one example of a person who makes $35,000 per year would pay $15 per week ($64.29 for a 30-day month), and the government would pick up the rest.

The story has been bouncing around, from the best I can tell, the Boston area since June 2005. When Romney unveiled the plan back then, he equated it to the government requiring every driver to purchase auto insurance. Well, there's one major flaw in that logic: Not everyone drives. If someone lives in Boston, and doesn't want to buy auto insurance, they can take the bus. Now, if they want to save $65 a month by not buying health insurance, they better stop breathing. Besides, auto insurance is basically to cover your ass when you wreck someone else's car, anyway.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for every (legal) U.S. citizen having quality health care coverage, but making it manditory seems to be taking it a bit too far. I understand why Romney's taken the all-or-nothing approach. His state government (therefore the taxpayers) have to foot the bill for all the uninsured people who are turning up sick or injured. He can't have his government footing the bill for the people who fit into the "I want insurance, but can't afford it, so help me" category while still paying for the "I don't want insurance, but if I get sick, I'm going to to doctor anyway" people. What it boiled down to was Romney making a tough decision, but, in doing so, he also made the decision for the roughly 500,000 uninsured citizen's within his state's borders.

Romney has already chosen not to run for governor in the next round of elections, which makes it obvious he's going to toss his hat in for the Republican nomination for the presidency. What's also obvious is that he's going the be "the health care" guy during the campaign. He also made several "big picture" comments during his interview with Chris Matthews on MSNBC's Hardball.

Like I said earlier, I'm all about "health care for all," but Romney's "health care for all … or else" policy, well, I'll just have to wait and see.

At least there's some time before 2008.