Romney on America's uninsured: Let them eat emergency rooms

During an interview with Scott Pelley on the CBS program "60 Minutes" last night, GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney addressed America's uninsured: "Well, we do provide care for people who don't have insurance. If someone has a heart attack, they don't sit in their apartment and die. We pick them up in an ambulance, and take them to the hospital, and give them care. And different states have different ways of providing for that care." Not only is this the douchiest response ever, it's untrue, and it's a reversal of his prior position. FYI, this approach does not work well for a lot of populations: for people who can't afford dental care, for instance, or people like me who have cancer. Without a truly functional health care safety net, many uninsured and under-insured cancer patients in America do, in fact, "sit in their apartment and die."