This election has repeatedly and accurately called a test of post-truth politics. It is not just an election of candidates, it is a test of democracy. Mitt Romney has shown a severe contempt for the voters and democracy at every step of the process. He is clearly testing the proposition that, if backed by enough corporate cash and aided by a lazy media obsessed with false balance, he can get elected by telling people what they want to hear without any regard for facts. This is true across the spectrum of issues including Romney's tax 'plan', his jobs 'plan', and especially his health care 'plan'. The truth breadth of post-truth politics is clearly visible when looking at the two different health care plans and especially the issue of coverage for pre-existing illnesses.
The problem of health insurance companies denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions is a serious problem that was a major issue in the 2008 election. Millions of people are denied coverage or can only get outrageously expensive coverage. Many people who are lucky enough to have coverage are unable to change jobs or start a new business for fear of losing their coverage. But, this is also a tricky issue to fix. If you make insurance companies cover people with pre-existing conditions, then people can wait until they get sick and then get coverage. How the two presidential candidates chose to solve this problem is remarkably revealing about their character and their seriousness but it is also a story the media have largely ignored.
President Obama chose to undertake the hard work to actually solve the problem. I wish he would have implemented a Medicare-for-all solution to solve the problem and get health care costs under control using a system siilar to every other advanced country in the world but instead he chose to adapt a Republican plan to use the existing private health care system. I think this was a big mistake, but it reflects President Obama's character as a left-of-center pragmatist who tries to accomplish incremental change within the current system. If he wanted to guarantee coverage to people with pre-existing coverage, he had to first institute a mandate so that everyone would have coverage before they were sick, but if he wanted to institute a mandate, he first had to provide subsidies for people that couldn't afford health insurance. If you decide to keep the current system and cover pre-existing coverage a system like the Obamacare or Romneycare is almost inevitable. Obama put this system in place, found ways to pay for it, attacked long term health care costs, and found a way to get the bill passed through Congress despite fierce opposition from Republicans and a non-stop campaign of misinformation. Thanks to these efforts, the 89 million Americans with pre-existing conditions will have much greater health care security if Obama is reelected and the ACA goes into effect.
Mitt Romney took another tack, he lied. He lied blatantly and repeatedly.
Whenever asked, Mitt Romney says his plan covers people with pre-existing conditions. It doesn't, he knows it doesn't, and his advisers admit it doesn't, but thanks to his repeated lies much of America will vote while thinking it does. Mitt Romney promises o repeal the ACA but keep all the popular provisions. After signing the Massachusetts law, Mitt Romney clearly know this is a lie but he is betting that the benefits of deceiving most of the population will offset any bad press he gets from lying. So far he is correct.
This is a real test of democracy. If Mitt Romney can get all of the same political benefits from lying as President Obama does from actually accomplishing something, then our country is in severe trouble. We cannot function as a democracy when politicians can win by promising Americans all the benefits with none of the responsibility. We can't have $5 trillion in tax cuts for free, we can't have $2 trillion in additional military spending without cutting elsewhere, we can't cover people with pre-existing conditions without an individual mandate, and we can't have a democracy when political parties can create their own reality.