It is "absolutely staggering" that President Obama claimed this week that Mitt Romney's health care law is the role model for the Affordable Care Act, co-host Joe Scarborough said Friday on Morning Joe. Because just a year ago, during the 2012 campaign, there was a pro-Obama advertisement that tied Romney to a woman's death, Scarborough added.
"Barack Obama and his campaign and people connected to his campaign and people closely associated with him in the past claimed that Mitt Romney killed a woman...It was one of the most horrific claims in some time," Scarborough said. "[Wednesday] he’s in Massachusetts, and he says Mitt Romney is the model of responsible healthcare. Why don’t we call this out this morning?"
An employee in the ad stated that he lost his insurance, and his wife became sick shortly after he lost his job at a Kansas City steel plant, which Romney and Bain Capital, the company he co-founded, closed down.
In 2006 Romney, who was then the governor of Massachusetts, signed a health-care bill into law for his state. The legislation served as a key model for the Affordable Care Act.
The White House continues to point to Massachusetts as a role model for effective health-care policy. When health care enrollment began there in 2007, 123 people signed up during the first month, followed by almost 2,300 in the second month. By the end of the year, 36,000 residents had enrolled.
The president tried to gain support for the health care law in Boston on Wednesday while U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius testified and took blame for the website glitches that have dogged the Obamacare rollout since the site went live on Oct. 1. Massachusetts "has shown that the model works,” the president said in Boston.
"Three-hundred million plus people live in this country. This is their landmark achievement; they’ve had over two years to prepare for it and only six people can enroll?" Scarborough said.
Co-host Mika Brzezinski disagreed, but Scarborough defended himself by insisting that the Obama administration refuses to release the number of users on the website.
Problems with the health care website, in addition to issues surrounding the IRS and National Security Agency, have affected the country's sentiments toward the president. Earlier this week, Obama received his lowest approval rating yet, according to an NBC News/WSJ poll.
Watch more on Morning Joe.