( CNN ) -- Gov . Mitt Romney got himself into a bit of a pickle Monday when he was quoted saying that he liked to `` fire people . '' Many have jumped onto this line as evidence of the candidate 's callousness toward working people in a bad economy . Even his Republican primary competitors latched onto the comment , especially as it might relate to his work at Bain Capital Ventures , to show that Romney is in the business of making people unemployed . There 's much more smoke here than fire , but some of it , unfortunately , is Romney 's fault . He was the one , after all , who tried to pitch his time at Bain as evidence of his success as a `` job creator . '' Specifically , in the GOP candidates ' debate on Saturday he said , `` In the business I had , we invested in over 100 different businesses and net-net , taking out the ones where we lost jobs and those that we added , those businesses have now added over 100,000 jobs . '' Turns out this is n't entirely correct . When pressed , his campaign released figures that showed that a number of companies helped by Bain under Romney 's tenure , such as Staples , the Sports Authority , and Domino 's , have added more than 100,000 jobs since then . But there are two problems with that figure . The first is that it 's the number of jobs in all the time since Romney started at Bain , including many years after he left . The second is that there are no figures that show how many jobs were added or lost at other companies Bain managed , so a claim of a `` net '' addition is unproven . Bain could release comprehensive figures , but it 's not likely it will . Nor should it . Bain is n't running for office , and I 'm sure it considers the information proprietary . The larger issue , though , is that many people were fired through Bain 's work . That is what often happens when venture firms take over businesses through leveraged buyouts . These stories make for compelling campaign commercials and news pieces . They do n't paint Romney in as nice a light . That 's compounded when he claims to `` enjoy '' firing people . But let 's be fair . The governor is having his words taken out of context . Here 's the full quote : . `` I want individuals to have their own insurance . That means the insurance company will have an incentive to keep people healthy . It also means if you do n't like what they do , you can fire them . I like being able to fire people who provide services to me . If someone does n't give me the good service I need , I 'm going to go get somebody else to provide that service to me . '' Romney is n't talking about his time at Bain . He 's talking about health insurance . Specifically , he 's talking about how he 'd like insurance to work . He would rather everyone be personally responsible for buying insurance , instead of getting it from the government . Then , he says , if the insurance company did a bad job , people could fire them . That sounds much better , right ? Unfortunately , it 's not . The first problem is that Romney ascribes motives to the insurance companies that make no sense . If you would just leave the insurance company if it did a bad job , then there is no incentive for it to keep you healthy . Healthy people are cheap for insurance companies , and sick people are not . If you go from being healthy to being sick , it 's in an insurance company 's best interest that you leave . That 's an economic fact , not a moral judgment . It 's only if you ca n't leave , if you have to remain on their books no matter what , that the company has an incentive to keep you healthy . The second problem is worse , though . Healthy people often do n't know their insurance plans are bad until they get sick . Healthy people , after all , do n't make as much use of their plans . Once they fall ill , though , it means now they have a pre-existing condition , which will make it almost impossible to them to get a new plan if they decide to fire their old insurance company . The way the private insurance market works today , almost no one has the luxury of firing the insurance company once he or she figures out it is n't doing a good job . That 's not true in Massachusetts , of course . Thanks to Romney 's legislation there , insurance companies ca n't deny you coverage and also ca n't charge you more for being sick . There , thanks to Romney , you can fire your insurance company and be assured of finding a better one . It will also be true for many more people once President Obama 's Affordable Care Act gets fully under way in 2014 . Since Romney seems so enamored of firing bad insurance companies , you might think he 'd want to protect and promote other people 's ability to do so . Instead , he opposes the Affordable Care Act , which would do the same thing nationally that his law did for the people of Massachusetts . Join CNN Opinion on Facebook and follow updates on Twitter . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Aaron Carroll .
Aaron Carroll : The only thing I can say is that the people who are saying this stuff have no idea what they are talking about. But it calls attention to his questionable record as `` job creator '' at Bain , he says . His quote involved firing health insurers ; but sick people do n't have luxury of doing that . Carroll : In Massachusetts they can , under Romney health law ; yet he opposes national reform .