About Ann Romney’s—And Other MS Victims’—Darkest Hour (those who have healthcare insurance, those who have very high deductibles, and those who may lose their jobs and be unable to get new healthcare insurance. Or a dressage horse.)
The DNC has apologized for using Ann Romney’s London Olympics-bound horse in an attack targeting her husband.
The Hill explains that Democrats had used the dressage horse to illustrate its claim that the presumptive GOP nominee was “dancing around the issue” of his decision not to release his tax returns. (Dressage is a dance-like sport, but on a horse. Get it?)
The problem? The horse is used by Ann Romney for therapy related to her multiple sclerosis.
DNC spokesperson Brad Woodhouse told ABC News that the decision to use footage of the horse “was not meant to offend Mrs. Romney in any way, and we regret it if it did.” Woodhouse added that the group won’t “invoke the horse any further to avoid misinterpretation.”
For what it’s worth, the dressage horse, named Rafalca, apparently gets the Romneys a rather hefty tax credit. (Literally, fwiw: $77,000 a year.)
— DNC Sorry for Using AnnRomney’s Horse in Attack Ad: TheDemocrats say they won’t use the Olympic-bound animal in future campaign spots, Abby Ohlheiser, Slate, today
A headline today on ABC News’ website, about an interview there today with Ann Romney, is “Mitt Romney’s Wife, Ann, Calls MS Diagnosis ‘MyDarkest Hour’.” Unquestionably, that was a dark hour for her, and one that anyone can empathize with. And, yes, it’s great that dressage helps her regain some of the ability to balance she lost due to her MS.
But here’s my question to Ann Romney and her husband: How much darker an hour does she think it is for someone who’s given that diagnosis and either has no healthcare insurance or has a very high deductible, or who now dearly fears the loss of his or her job, either because of the health problem or for other reasons, and who, for resulting financial reasons or preexisting-condition reasons—or both—may never again have health insurance if the ACA is repealed? Or be able to get a dressage horse.
I don’t think Obama or the DNC should shy away from asking this question. Or from doing an ad in which someone in exactly that position asks it.
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UPDATE: Because of the emotional impact of this particular issue, I want post as part of the main post a Comments Section exchange between reader MC and me. Here it is:
MC: I’m confused. Does owning horses or houses somehow make you a bad presidential candidate? And therapeutic horse riding is used for all sorts of medical conditions, so this is not unusual. Regardless of who I think should win the election, Ann Romney is drawing alot of attention to multiple sclerosis, which is a largely unknowable disease at this point. I have it. Its ruining my life. We need more awareness and research so we can actually understand what causes this disease and how to treat it with something better than a 33% success rate. I’m all for candidates hashing out their issues, but I agree with those who are calling for a cease fire when it comes to involving Ann and her illness. MS needs positive attention and deserves respect.
Me: Does owning horses or houses somehow make you a bad presidential candidate? That depends on how you got the money to buy the several dressage horses, each worth several hundred thousand dollars, and to buy the several houses, each worth several million dollars. And on such things as whether or not you paid the full amount of taxes you owed, or instead hid or misrepresented the value of the assets in offshore accounts, including offshore IRA accounts, in order to evade taxes or even to avoid taxes using legal means available only to the very wealthy. And whether your proposed tax policies, such as reducing yet again taxes on the wealthy, would benefit you (the candidate) extensively, to the detriment of a large percentage of the public.
And, of course, on what you (the voter, rather than the candidate) thinks is a bad presidential candidate. My view is different than yours, obviously.
As for Ann Romney’s MS and dressage therapy, it was Romney herself, not the DNC, that raised the issue, by going on television this morning and responding to the DNC ad by telling everyone that she uses the Olympic horse for therapy. (She has several substitute horses when that horse is training or in, say, London for a competition. She didn’t mention that, though, I guess.) She also said that the MS diagnosis was her darkest hour.
Her husband is running for president partly on a platform of repealing the ACA, including the provision that requires insurance companies to accept everyone regardless of preexisting medical conditions, and, of course, the provisions that provide for expansion of Medicaid and for subsidies for premiums for some others.
You say that we need more awareness and research so we can actually understand what causes this disease and how to treat it with something better than a 33% success rate. So true. It’s true for so many other very series diseases, as well, that effect young people and middle-aged people. ([Muscular dystrophy] comes quickly to my mind; someone dear to me died of it two years ago after having lived most of his life in a motorized wheelchair.) But in this country, unlike in every other advanced industrialized democracy in the world, medical advances can be made use of here only by those who have access to employee-benefit medical insurance. You’re obviously among them. But not everyone else with MS or another debilitating chronic illness is.
Although I didn’t put this in my Comment response, I’d also like to note that under Romney’s proposed tax and budget cuts, which are extreme, there would be virtually no federal funds for medical research, either to the universities or to the NIH. So if you’re someone who places a high value on medical research—and I suspect that most people do—this is no small matter to consider when deciding whether Romney is a bad candidate or not.
I kind of doubt that AR would use her Olympics-bound horse for MS therapy unless it’s to admire and pet it.
From what I know of the sport, the only person allowed to ride the animal would be the athlete who is actually competing with it — not even another trainer or rider. Otherwise, it compromises the performance.
The Romneys have quite a number of dressage horses, as I understand it. The ones she rides are not the ones in competition, I guess.
You do raise and interesting point, though,rto: How many dressage horses does she need for her therapy? They have three or four homes–so why do they need more than three or four healthy dressage horses at any one time?
I’m confused. Does owning horses or houses somehow make you a bad presidential candidate? And therapeutic horse riding is used for all sorts of medical conditions, so this is not unusual. Regardless of who I think should win the election, Ann Romney is drawing alot of attention to multiple sclerosis, which is a largely unknowable disease at this point. I have it. Its ruining my life. We need more awareness and research so we can actually understand what causes this disease and how to treat it with something better than a 33% success rate. I’m all for candidates hashing out their issues, but I agree with those who are calling for a cease fire when it comes to involving Ann and her illness. MS needs positive attention and deserves respect.
No snark intended, but this does give additional meaning to the phrase, “and a pony”.
How many MS victims get equine therapy?
Does owning horses or houses somehow make you a bad presidential candidate, Mandy? That depends on how you got the money to buy the several dressage horses, each worth several hundred thousand dollars, and to buy the several houses, each worth several million dollars. And on such things as whether or not you paid the full amount of taxes you owed, or instead hid or misrepresented the value of the assets in offshore accounts, including offshore IRA accounts, in order to evade taxes or even to avoid taxes using legal means available only to the very wealthy. And whether your proposed tax policies, such as reducing yet again taxes on the wealthy, would benefit you (the candidate) extensively, to the detriment of a large percentage of the public.
And, of course, on what you (the voter, rather than the candidate) thinks is a bad presidential candidate. My view is different than yours, obviously.
As for Ann Romney’s MS and dressage therapy, it was Romney herself, not the DNC, that raised the issue, by going on television this morning and responding to the DNC ad by telling everyone that she uses the Olympic horse for therapy. (She has several substitute horses when that horse is training or in, say, London for a competition. She didn’t mention that, though, I guess.) She also said that the MS diagnosis was her darkest hour.
Her husband is running for president partly on a platform of repealing the ACA, including the provision that requires insurance companies to accept everyone regardless of preexisting medical conditions, and, of course, the provisions that provide for expansion of Medicaid and for subsidies for premiums for some others.
You say that we need more awareness and research so we can actually understand what causes this disease and how to treat it with something better than a 33% success rate. So true. It’s true for so many other very series diseases, as well, that effect young people and middle-aged people. (MD comes quickly to my mind; someone dear to me died of it two years ago after having lived most of his life in a motorized wheelchair.) But in this country, unlike in every other advanced industrialized democracy in the world, medical advances can be made use of here only by those who have access to employee-benefit medical insurance. You’re obviously among them. But not everyone else with MS or another debilitating chronic illness is.
Hmmm. Since it appears that the horse for the Olympics is not the horse for the therapy, it seems like the Romneys have artfully dodged the attack with an irrelevant plea for sympathy.
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Bev:
Most people without healthcare insurance miss the dignity of having to use a dressage horse to treat MS and which is bound for the Olypmics. Maybe Mitt will mandate dressage horses along with the dignity to work to escape welfare.
While I have sympathy and concern for MS victims, most deal with far less, and still must work which Ms. Romney may have escaped all of her life. Yet still she is qualified on both counts to speak out as a women and as a wife.
Two loaves of bread . . .
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Beautifully put, coberly. And I love it that you mentioned FDR.
Beverly
thanks. i deleted my comments because i was afraid of getting accused of being insensitive.
coberly, I find it chilling that you need to fear a misinterpretation of your comment so much that you would delete it.
We need to speak out. People need to “get it”. I want the candidate to show the concern and empathy for non-rich, non-horsey suffers of tragic diseases. I don’t owe the candidate any hesitance based on his wife’s tragic situation.
As the wife of a victim of a similar disease (Parkinson’s) I resent the attempt to send “sympathizers” around the Internet and media outlets to express “me too” outrage. Believe me, to the average person facing such a disease, the policies of the candidate MUST be expressed as they relate to all who will suffer and be victimized by mean anti-American intentions such as the Ryan budget, ACA repeal, and other attempts to turn workers into disposable resources.
Sorry. NO, not sorry. You see I look to belief and intent.
I don’t have MS, but I know what it’s like to live with a long term chronic condition. Since 1994 I have lived with ESRD, end stage renal disease, and have been on dialysis, had a transplant and then been back on dialysis. I am not rich, but I’ve been lucky, see ESRD is the only disease specifically given the right to Medicare. I have no problems with my socialized health care as a matter of fact I’d love to share it with all my fellow citizens. Saying that it is the height of being disingenuous for the Romney’s to claim all of their equine expenses as being MS/disease related. Like so many other ‘welfare queens of wall street’ the Romney’s have an over sized sense of entitlement.
Ann’s horsies are fair game, until all Americans, not just the wealthy have access to the health care they need why should they get tens of thousands of dollars of tax relief.
Comment Part 1
Beverly, I was diagnosed with MS in 1986 — I’ve now lived with it and the encroaching disability for 26 years. I agree with your original post and loudly applaud your response to MC!
Let me fill you in a little on what I did after the diagnosis.
I had just begun grad school when I was diagnosed. Overwhelming fatigue was my first symptom — I saw my MD 3 years before my MS diagnosis because of the fatigue I was experiencing that was completely new to me. What led to the diagnosis was much of my left side going numb, starting with my leg and progressing to my hand and face. I thought I was having a stroke. I wasn’t — it was MS, and that’s when it was diagnosed.
Not only did I finish grad school, earn a Ph.D., but I did so in 5 years while working 20+ hours a week to earn a living and support myself. I was fortunate to be in a grad program that provided excellent health insurance through the university and pay to work those extra hours, so I could work within my chosen field of study (I conducted research, taught intro college lab classes in my field and worked at a school for kids with behavior and/or intellectual challenges and did those usually two at a time).
I then went on a year’s internship (the briefer equivalent of a physician’s residency) and believe me, it was a killer year. I had one exacerbation that kept me out of work for 3 weeks — I was in danger of not finishing my internship (and thus not getting my Ph.D.) — thankfully, I finished. The second exacerbation I had (due to the internship hours and the associated stress), I worked through it — I managed to get early hours for my IV solu-medtrol infusions & then went to work, long sleeves hiding the IV needle in my arm.
After finishing my Ph.D., I completed a 2-year postdoc. During that postdoc, I lost my balance & fell in the shower, breaking my wrist….I arrived on time at work (at a hospital) that morning, only going for a wrist x-ray when a doctor I worked with insisted as the bruising & swelling was substantial by our morning meeting…..I went, got casted, and went back to work. My physical status changed enough during those two years that I went from fully independent to using a scooter for longer distances — my legs started to give out. I missed ONE MORNING of work to go to the assessment at the Rehab. Inst. of Chicago. That’ it, except for the occasional medical appointment that all staff missed work time to go to — that’s the only time I missed due to my disease.
I then went to work in a high stress field, loving every minute of it (as I did all of my grad years and internship, except for those bloody exacerbations and the postdoc). Sadly, disability and particularly the overwhelming fatigue led to my having to stop working full-time about 8 years ago. Instead of going on SSDI, I worked part-time as a consultant & had a part-time practice. That allowed me to control my hours & compensate for the fatigue. I lost my health insurance, though. I was able to do that for 4 years. I then had to stop altogether.
What I’d done by doing that is, unbeknownst to me, worked myself out of eligibility for Medicare through a loophole known as “time since last insured.” I was devastated. I fortunately had saved through my many jobs before grad school and saved even a little while in grad school. I’d built a small IRA and had some savings, so I’m surviving, barely. With lots of unpaid medical bills accrued lately due to two MS hospitalizations when I was uninsured.
I went for years without insurance. I moved to a community that has very good community health and a program that allowed me to get all kinds of medical care, including seeing specialists, for free.
(End of part 1. Sorry this is so long…I have a lot to say on this emotionally laden issue for me.)
Part 2
I faced ovarian cancer recently. I was lucky — what looked on every single test like a raging malignancy turned out to be a large “borderline” tumor with no spread. Fortunately, my Dem gov had instituted Inclusive Health (Fed program) and I was able to get health insurance for the surgery, which I maintain to this day despite the fact that the price is way too high for me and it’s come at considerable sacrifice. But I have it, thanks to President Obama. I still owe tens of thousands of dollars for previous (uninsured) hospitalizations & other medical care that wasn’t covered, in addition to my $4500 (unaffordable) deductible under Inclusive Health.
Should I have chosen too avail myself of riding therapy, a few of the places I lived in over the years had great riding therapy programs nearby. That’s how most people who use therapeutic riding do it — only the 1%….or maybe the 5%, have the wherewithal to actually own the horses they use for therapy.
And no, Ann Romney hasn’t drawn needed attention to MS. MS is one of the most common neurological diseases. Famous people with MS include Richard Pryor, Barbara Jordan, Annette Funicello, Montel Williams, David “Squiggy” Lander, Alan & David Osmond, Donna Fargo, Teri Garr, Clay Walker, Neil Cavuto, Joan Didion and many more. And there are many celebrities whose relatives have MS, like Gloria Estefan’s father. MANY of these celebrities have devoted themselves to awareness, raising money for MS treatment & research, etc. Gloria Estefan, among her many MS-related activities, does MS Walks — you think that doesn’t bring attention and raise LOTS of money? Clay Walker, multi-platinum country singer, formed Band Against MS, a nonprofit devoted to providing assistance for people with MS, providing educational information & raising money for research. I think it was only about a month ago he did a Nashville concert to raise money for MS research. Many of the above are/have been MS Ambassadors for the MS Society, and so much more. Wonder if anyone can count on similar devotion to the cause or it’ll always be all about her. She’s new to the disease and certainly needs time to adjust and find her footing. And now isn’t the time to be out there stumping for another cause, particularly given the need to take care of herself so as not to exacerbate the disease. We’ll see in the future — I know what my bets are on.
Ann Romney is a mere new blip in the celebrity roster of famous people affected by MS, many of whom have done TONS to increase awareness of the disease and raise money for treatment, assistance for others and research.
And, frankly, while I do empathize with Ann Romney’s emotional reaction to the diagnosis, all sympathy is lost when she makes her grand pronouncements about “those people,” when so many have to fight for medical care and so many go without and when her husband/candidate for president doesn’t give a shit about other people with MS, those who will be devastated by his drastic cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and research devoted to finding the cause, care and maybe even down the road a cure for MS and other devastating neurological diseases.
And then there’s his promise to repeal the ACA….which would mean on a personal level that I stop being a paying health insured citizen and go back to getting whatever freebies I can get as long as they hold out…..I have every right to revile both Ann & Willard Romney. And frankly, what a damn stupid move on his part — it belies his claim to be in favor of fiscal responsibility — not only would I go back to being dependent on others for whatever charity they’ll give, but I’ll go back to unpaid hospitalizations my next go-round(s). And the Congressional Budget Office agrees….it’d be a lame-brained move — its analysis indicated repealing the law would cause a net increase in federal deficits of $210 billion from 2012 – 2021.
wearbear, “I have no problems with my socialized health care as a matter of fact I’d love to share it with all my fellow citizens.”
To be more specific you don’t enjoy the benefit of socialized health care. You benefit from socialized health care financing. The only thing close to socialized health care in this country would be the municipality run hospitals. They are unfortunately woefully under funded and for that reason can seem like second class helath care. The Medicare that you and all older Americans participate in is a financing mechanism for health care services received, for the most part, from private health care practitioners and health care centers, both non-profit and otherwise.
Arlo, please let me suggest to you that you put what you wrote here into op-ed form and offer it to the New York Times, which a few months ago (I think, when it changed managing editors and op-ed editors) began publishing occasional biographical op-ed pieces that inform about or illustrate things of various types that aren’t normally the subject of major-media op-eds. If the Times isn’t interested, Slate might be. They publish freelance pieces of that type, too.
I just want also to point out that Ann Romney was diagnosed with MS in the mid-1990s, so she’s not new to the matter. I assume that she and her husband donate large amounts regularly to MS research, but they’d have to donate a far larger percentage of their wealth to MS research (not to mention research for other debilitating diseases) to compensate for the amount of federal funds Romney for medical research that Romney wants to cut.
Also, I love your point that most people who use hippotherapy don’t own the horses the use; they go to a stable and rent one of the trained horses periodically.
It would be nice, if you’re willing, to see your story told in an ad for Obama.
As for Ann Romney, I was planning to post something on the blog today about her jaw-dropping comment yesterday that we all have all the information we “need” about her husband’s finances. But today, everyone’s mind (including mine) is on the massacre in Aurora, CO. I’ll write my post sometime next week. I’d like to see Obama ads showing a clip of her saying that, juxtaposed with statements by one or two experts describing what information, exactly, the Romneys are claiming the public doesn’t “need.”
If Mitt Romney really doesn’t believe that that type of information—given the high probability of the use of extreme mechanisms for major tax avoidance or actual tax evasion, and the remarkable metastasizing of that IRA (suggesting the clear possibility that Romney simply lied about the value of assets he put in the account, especially since he has not disputed speculation that that is what he did)—then that alone disqualifies him to be president, in my opinion.
PS: The arrogance, condescension and feelings of entitlement of this couple seems to know no bounds. I remember about two months ago seeing a clip of Ann Romney telling an interviewer that her husband will win in November because, she said, “It’s our turn.”
Not to be mean, but what’s a poor woman with MS to do for therapy? Tie a sled dog team to the front of her bicycle and yell “Giddiup!” And more importantly, would she get a tax deduction?
Our spam filter doesn’t work so well folk…sorry for all the deletes…the new site will be better.
Beverly, I’m sure you were intending to spark some conversation with me about this, by including my comments in your original article. Sorry to disappoint, I actually landed in the hospital, and it took me months to recover.
Can you do me the favor now of untagging me from the original post (and possibly removing my last name from the article) so that this post doesn’t come up anytime someone googles my name for the rest of my life? I’d like to not have my medical issues public knowledge for friends and employers and others to see so readily. I should’ve thought of that when posting originally, but I didn’t. Thank you in advance for your consideration here.
Mandy
Mandy:
You are untagged and just remain in the comments. I did not see your name in the article.