After all, Obamacare is Mitt Romney’s baby on steroids so what makes you think that he will repeal Obamacare, especially in light of Romney’s appointment to his presidential transition team, i.e., former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt.
Many refer to Leavitt as a profiteer of Obamacare and rightfully so.
I refer you to an article written on June 27, 2011 entitled, Health exchanges: A new gold mine:
Cheryl Smith and Brett Graham may live in Salt Lake City — but you’d be hard pressed to find them in Utah these days.
The pair lead the health exchange practice at the consulting firm Leavitt Partners and, ever since the health care reform law passed, they have been in hot demand.
Smith and Graham aren’t the only Leavitt Partners employees pulling extra hours. Staff at the firm has doubled over the past year, as has office space in the Salt Lake City headquarters. Leavitt has forged new partnerships across the industry and has even begun turning down some potential clients because of lack of capacity.
The secret to its success: the health reform law and the millions of dollars it invests in health exchanges, the new marketplaces that states must launch by 2014 or risk the federal government coming in and taking over the task.
More than $300 million in exchange grants has already flowed into the states since the Affordable Care Act passed. That number will grow exponentially in the coming months, as states move from the initial steps of passing exchange legislation to the more lucrative task of setting them up.
For health consultants and information technology vendors, it’s already shaping up to be a gold mine….
…‘There is a group that feels as though they don’t want to be associated with the Affordable Care Act,’ said Leavitt Partners CEO Michael Leavitt, who was Health and Human Services secretary under President George W. Bush. ‘Privately, though, it’s clear that several of those are planning behind the scenes, because they don’t want to have a federal exchange…
In mid-May, the New Mexico Human Services Department awarded Leavitt Partners a $1 million contract to assist in the structuring of the state’s health insurance exchange.
…Leavitt Partners of Salt Lake City won the contract through a competitive bidding process and will assist the state with grant applications, technical work and overall development of New Mexico’s health insurance exchange, HSD said in a news release. The firm will also help the state apply for more federal insurance exchange grants and write bid specifications for the construction of the site, said HSD spokesman Matt Kennicott.
The federal Affordable Care Act requires states to set up insurance exchanges where low-income people and others can shop for health insurance. The law says the exchanges must be operational by Jan. 1, 2014….
CONTINUE
Leavitt Partners was founded in 2009 several months before the passage of Obamacare.
What does the Romney appointment represent?
Until now, I have intentionally avoided posting much on the subject of Mitt Romney in the hopes that he would eventually provide me with something positive of which I could post.
I can no longer remain silent. The appointment of Mike Leavitt to lead Romney’s transition team represents business as usual, smacks of crony capitalism and betrayal pre-Romney entering the White House.
A review of the Leavitt Partners website reveals that partners of the firm are well connected DC operatives and players of the Progressive establishment with a vested interest in Obamacare. That in itself should be of concern.
For example:
Rich McKeown — President and CEO of Leavitt Partners. An attorney by training, McKeown co-founded Leavitt Partners with Gov. Michael O. Leavitt and, in his previous role, served as the chief of staff of the Department of Health and Human Services, where he oversaw the day-to-day operations of the nation’s largest federal department and the department most central to the implementation of federal health reform.
David Merritt — A senior advisor at Leavitt Partners and former CEO of the Center for Health Transformation. He has served as a health care advisor to several presidential campaigns and is the editor of Paper Kills 2.0, the sequel to the award-winning book about health care, Paper Kills.
Andrew Croshaw — A partner at Leavitt Partners and a former senior executive advisor to then Secretary Michael O. Leavitt at Health and Human Services. A Harvard MBA graduate, Croshaw has private sector experience with Eli Lilly and Novartis, and is an expert on value-driven health care….
From Mitt Romney down, Obamacare is high stakes. Hence, in spite of the spin, Americans can be sure of one thing in the event of a Romney win. Mitt Romney will not repeal Obamacare. He will dance around the issue, maybe even perform a dog and pony show but in the end, Obamacare will not be repealed under Romney’s watch.
The implementation of Obamacare is a treasure trove for Mike Leavitt, among others. Furthermore, Leavitt’s firm has already assessed various scenarios surrounding the outcome of the Supreme Court ruling on Obamacare for their own self-enrichment.
If you still do not get it, just test it out over at Health Reform Bracketology and see for yourself.
Clearly, Mitt Romney does not get it. Romney is only pretending to hear the calls for repeal when in fact such calls are falling upon deaf ears.
Suggested reading: Michael Leavitt has profited from Obamacare. So what?
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