The momentum is back in Mitt Romney’s camp today after trumping Newt Gingrich in yesterday’s Florida primaries – a victory that handed Romney all 50 Florida convention delegates.
But that has not slowed Gingrich a bit. A day before the primary, in fact, he outlined his Day One scenario to Floridians. The first part of Gingrich’s plan to dismantle 40 percent of President Barack Obama’s government would be to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). Following that would be repealing the Dodd-Frank legislation that put in place regulations on Wall Street, then eliminating White House Czars.
Also promising to repeal PPACA, Romney is treading a bit more lightly because of Massachusetts own individual mandate for health insurance coverage, saying on the campaign trail that he intends to sign an executive order enabling states to opt out of PPACA.
Although both candidates are promising to repeal the health law, scant details about whay they might replace it with are contributing to uncertainty among Florida physicians, as Government Health IT Senior
Editor Mary Mosquera reports in Florida docs view anxious future. Dr. Jack Zeltzer, a surgeon and president of the Palm Beach County Medical Society told Mosquera that "We’re just trying to keep the lights on in our offices to take care of patients. We are busy because of the manpower shortage and just trying to put a finger in the dike to keep everything from falling part.”
Making matters worse, Florida plans to cut Mediciad ahead of health reform, despite a report from the Urban Institute that found Florida to be a health reform laggard, and one with much to gain from implementing new measures.
Proof that tensions between the two candidates are at all time high, meanwhile, came with Romney’s victory as Politico reports that Gingrich does not extend congratulatory calls to Romney.
“Newt didn’t call after Iowa or New Hampshire. I called him after South Carolina, his win there, but he didn’t call again last night. The other candidates all called. But I don’t know, I guess speaker Gingrich doesn’t have our phone number,” Romney said, laughing, on NBC’s Today show.
According to a CNN poll, Romney took 46 percent of the Florida votes, Gingrich 32 percent, while Rick Santorum garnered 13 percent, and Ron Paul 7 percent.
