Mitt Romney believes poor people should just go to the ER when sick.

Mitt Romney is arguing that the poor should just go to the ER when ill because that's a good idea. Also, the actual quote is more along the lines of, "At least we didn't let them die." Romney pretty much calls the ER a substitute for insurance. This was on Huffington Post this morning with video, and I couldn't resist.

So anecdotal, I worked in an ER processing intake while in undergrad during the graveyard shift. I can tell you, ER doctors, nurses, and staff do not believe the ER should substitute for insurance, and often the uninsured or those on Medicaid were treated poorly. I could tell you about how staff would make the uninsured and underinsured wait for hours before taking them. Not everyone mind you, but a lot of the people on staff were resentful of those who weren't insured.

Romney's quote:

"Well, we do provide 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."

First, Romney's selective amnesia strikes again; he has no memory of his universal health care law in Massachusetts.

When asked whether he believed in universal health care, Romney responded, "Oh, sure." I think the question was poorly phrased. Universal health care isn't like believing in God. Universal health care exists. He continued to say:

"Look, it doesn't make a lot of sense for us to have millions and millions of people who have no health insurance and yet who can go to the emergency room and get entirely free care for which they have no responsibility, particularly if they are people who have sufficient means to pay their own way."

Actually, Mittens, going to the emergency room isn't completely free. It contributes to the system that increases insurance premiums for all of us.

Romney also asserts that states have their own way of doing things:

"Again, different states have different ways of doing that. Some provide that care through clinics. Some provide the care through emergency rooms. In my state, we found a solution that worked for my state. But I wouldn't take what we did in Massachusetts and say to Texas, 'You've got to take the Massachusetts model.'"

Just to be clear, Romney's home state, which is the example he uses, has universal health care, but the rest of us shouldn't have that. We should use the more costly ER method.