[Vision2020] Mass. Succeeds with its Health Care Plan

[Donovan Arnold]

This isn't anything like what Obama is proposing. Obama is not going to force people that cannot afford health insurance to buy it like Massachusetts is trying to do.
 
Forcing people that cannot afford health insurance or pay a fine they cannot afford either is cruel and ought to be unconstitutional if it isn't already. 
 
So many people are under the delusion, that health insurance buys health care, and that people don't buy health because they are lazy and stupid, not broke or unable to afford it.
 
Forcing people to buy health insurance only makes health insurance companies double their prices and slash benefits since they government forces you to buy from them. It doesn't increase the quality of health care.
 
Best Regards,
 
Donovan

--- On Sun, 8/31/08, nickgier at adelphia.net <nickgier at adelphia.net> wrote:

From: nickgier at adelphia.net <nickgier at adelphia.net>
Subject: [Vision2020] Mass. Succeeds with its Health Care Plan
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Date: Sunday, August 31, 2008, 11:15 PM

Greetings:

This plan is very much like what Obama is proposing.  McCain's
plan--I'll be writing a column about it--is an absolute disaster.

Mitt Romney, who got it going when he was governor, is now praising his own
plan.  He had to diss it while running for president!

Nick Gier

August 30, 2008
Editorial, The New York Times
The Massachusetts Way

The pioneering Massachusetts program to provide health insurance for all
citizens looks more and more successful with each passing month.

The number of uninsured has dropped — Massachusetts now has the lowest rate
in the nation — and so have the number of those who turn to costly emergency
rooms for routine care. And while the state has had to seek additional sources
of revenue — mainly because of the program’s popularity — the gains in the
first 21 months suggest that the plan could become a model for universal health
coverage for other states or the nation.

Massachusetts enacted its ambitious health insurance reform two years ago under
bipartisan leadership from then-Gov. Mitt Romney and a Democratic Legislature.
Although Mr. Romney distanced himself from the plan during the Republican
primaries, he was back to extolling its virtues in an opinion piece for The Wall
Street Journal last month.

The plan requires everyone to take out health insurance or suffer a tax penalty
and requires employers to offer coverage or pay a small assessment if they
don’t. Low-income residents can enroll in an expanded state-federal Medicaid
program or receive subsidies to pay all or part of the premiums for private
insurance. Those who earn more than 300 percent of the federal poverty level
(about $63,000 for a family of four) receive no subsidy but can buy private
policies through a new insurance exchange at much lower rates than before.

More than 439,000 people have taken out coverage since the program began in
mid-2006 — two-thirds of the estimated 650,000 who lacked health insurance
when the program began.

More than 40 percent of the newly insured purchased private commercial policies
without any government subsidies, defying dire predictions that employers would
drop their plans and a horde of individuals would drop private policies. What
seems to be happening instead is that workers who previously shunned their
employers’ plans have decided to sign up now that insurance is required.

The big expansion in coverage has yielded a commensurate drop in the number of
“free riders,” those who use hospital emergency rooms and community health
centers for routine care that they don’t pay for. The cost of that
uncompensated care dropped from $166 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2007
to $98 million in the first quarter of 2008.

Far more people have enrolled far more quickly than expected, driving up the
total budget for subsidized care beyond Medicaid to $869 million in the next
fiscal year, about half of which will be absorbed by the state and the other
half by redirected federal funds. The cost per person is actually less than
expected. The program to date is fully financed.

That may still look like a lot of money, but universal coverage is vitally
important to enhance the health of previously uninsured citizens. In the long
run, full coverage should serve as a springboard toward reforming the health
care system to deliver higher quality, more cost-effective care.

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