Speaking with The Columbus Dispatch yesterday, presidential nominee Mitt Romney reiterated his vow to repeal Obamacare and put in place a system that relies mostly on having people go to the emergency room when they need medical attention.

"We don't have a setting across this country where if you don't have insurance, we just say to you, ‘Tough luck, you're going to die when you have your heart attack,''" Romney told members of The Dispatch's editorial board. "No, you go to the hospital, you get treated, you get care, and it's paid for, either by charity, the government or by the hospital. We don't have people that become ill, who die in their apartment because they don't have insurance."

Actually, as many as 48,000 people die every year because they don't have health insurance.

And Mitt Romney's Affordable Care Act alternative — which he has yet to fully outline — will add millions more to the nearly 49 million who went without health insurance last year.

And all that before we even get to the heart of the matter: That emergency rooms don't care for people with ongoing conditions; that emergency care is far more expensive than preventative care; and that once you have a condition that requires you to visit the emergency room, you are no longer entitled to cost-reducing coverage in Mitt Romney's America.

[photo via AP]