In an earlier blog post rebutting Democratic critics of Romney's Medicare proposal, his campaign policy director Lanhee Chen made an indirect reference to the candidate's belief that costs can be controlled without spending limits. "Gov. Romney has proposed no cap on premium support in his own plan," Chen wrote, providing no additional detail.
Not having some kind of limit sends the wrong signal to the health care industry, said economist Joe Antos of the business-oriented American Enterprise Institute.
"I think that some bitter medicine is going to have to be administered here," said Antos. "For this policy to work, at least initially, you have to make it clear to the health care sector that there are financial limits to what Medicare is going to pay for."
Former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker, a leading deficit-reduction advocate, said it's hard to understand how the Romney plan would work because so much of it remains fuzzy.
"I just don't know that we have enough details to meaningfully evaluate it at this point," Walker said. "People are trying to evaluate what the cost would be, but they just don't have enough facts to effectively evaluate it."
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