WASHINGTON — Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney reacted Thursday to the Supreme Court upholding President Barack Obama’s health care reform law by flatly saying, “If we want to get rid of Obamacare, we’re going to have to replace President Obama.”
“As you might imagine, I disagree with the Supreme Court’s decision and I agree with the dissent,” Romney said from a Washington, D.C., rooftop with a view of the Capitol in the background. “What the court did not do on its last day in session, I will do on my first day if elected president of the United States. And that is I will act to repeal Obamacare.”
Romney argued that “Obamacare was bad policy yesterday, it’s bad policy today. Obamacare was bad law yesterday, it’s bad law today.”
The Republican said that it is “important for us to repeal and replace Obamacare,” going on to lay out the reforms he’d like to see implemented in its place.
“We have to make sure that people who want to keep their current insurance will be able to do so,” Romney said.
He also said people with pre-exisiting conditions should be able to keep their insurance and get insurance. “We also have to ensure that we do our very best to help each state in their effort to ensure that every American has access to affordable health care,” he said.
Romney said “this is now a time for the American people to make a choice.”
“You can choose whether you want to have a larger and larger government, more and intrusive in your life, separating you and your doctor,” he said. (SEE ALSO: Justice Ginsburg cites Romneycare in Obamacare ruling)
Continuing, he said: “Or whether instead you want to return to a time when the American people will have their own choice in health care, where consumers will be able to make their choices as to what health insurance they want.”