Santorum Concedes Need for "Obamacare"; Says His Special Needs Child Took Up Too Much of His Income

Think Progress: SANTORUM: Well, we always need to do better. I was in a situation where we have seven children and one disabled child who we take care of, and she’s very, very expensive. We love her and we cherish the opportunity to take care of her, but it’s an additional expense. We have to have around-the-clock care for her, and our insurance company doesn’t cover it so I have to cover it.

Santorum has a million dollar income, and yet, still struggles to support the medical costs of his daughter. By admitting that the health care system has created a financial burden for families, Santorum is essentially conceding the need for the Affordable Care Act. Even though he has repeatedly claimed that children like Bella would receive inferior treatment under “socialized medicine,” the ACA actually guarantees that insurance providers cannot use disabilities like Bella’s as an excuse to deny service, nor can they cap how much money is spent on an individual’s medical benefits. It also prevents insurers from denying or limiting benefits. Children of families that don’t have a million dollars would have a better chance of managing costs.

To Joe:

Obama care is not the same thing as " Federal Employee Health Benefit Plan". I know because I have FEHBP since I am a retired letter carrier.

I do not claim that pre-Obama health care in America is perfect. It needs to be improved. The delays in obtaining health care in the countries with socialized medicine cost lives.

Yes, it could happen to any family, and they would be grateful to have the help if it did. The vast majority of bankruptcies are caused by medical debts.

Universal care works better. The fact is that in the USA we pay nearly *twice* what Europeans pay for health care, and we have both higher infant mortality and lower life expectancy than most European countries. In the table below, im = infant mortality and L = life expectancy.
2010 life expectancies: http://www.infoplease.com/world/statistics/infant-mortality-life-expectancy.html
2010 health care per capita: http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=HEALTH

United States -- im= 6.1, L= 78.2, cost $7538, 16.0% of GDP
Canada ---------- im= 5.0, L= 81.3, cost $4406, 10.4% of GDP

Austria --------- im= 4.4, L= 79.6, cost $3970, 10.5% of GDP
United Kingdom -- im= 4.7, L= 79.9, cost $3129, 8.7% of GDP
Denmark ------- im= 4.3, L= 78.5, cost $3540, 9.7% of GDP
Finland -------- im= 3.4, L= 79.1, cost $3008, 8.4% of GDP
France -------- im= 3.3, L= 81.0, cost $3696, 11.5% of GDP
Germany ------ im= 4.0, L= 79.4, cost $3737, 10.5% of GDP
Greece -------- im= 5.1, L= 79.8, cost $2687, 9.7% of GDP
Italy ------------ im= 5.4, L= 80.3, cost $2886, 9.5% of GDP
Norway --------- im= 3.5, L= 80.0, cost $5003, 8.5% of GDP
Spain ----------- im= 3.4, L= 81.0, cost $2902, 9.0% of GDP
Sweden -------- im= 2.7, L= 80.9, cost $3470, 9.4% of GDP
Switzerland --- im= 4.1, L= 80.9, cost $4810, 10.7% of GDP

In 2008, these two nations lagged the USA in life expectancy; now they have passed the USA.
Ireland --------- im= 3.9, L= 80.0, cost $3793, 8.7% of GDP
Portugal ------- im= 4.7, L= 78.4, cost $2151, 9.9% of GDP
.