Here are a few “highlights” of the current status of the Obamacare experiment in Massachusetts:
It’s exploding the budget: Our “universal” health insurance scheme is already $47 million over budget for 2010. Romneycare will cost taxpayers more than $900 million next year alone.
It’s killing us on costs: Average Massachusetts premiums are the highest in the nation and rising. We also spend 27 percent more on health care services, per capita, than the national average. Those costs, contrary to what we were promised, have been going up faster here than nearly everywhere else.
It’s creating bizarre marketplace mutations: In Massachusetts, ObamaCare 1.0 is such a mess our governor is talking about imposing draconian price controls. He’s even suggested going to “capitation,” a system where doctors get a fixed amount of money per patient - and then that’s it. Which means it would become in your doctor’s financial interest never to see you again.
All this damage to the taxpayers, the insured and the responsible business owners . . . and for what?
The percentage of uninsured Bay State residents has gone from around 6 percent to around 3 percent.
In other words, it’s a dud.
And now Obama is preparing to drop the Big One on bipartisanship and turn Congress into a political hot zone for the remainder of his presidency, in order to pass a similar plan.
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The Herald published this letter responding to the article quoted in the blog:
Editor:
While Michael Graham concludes that Massachusetts health care reform is a dud, the newly insured who are now being treated for cancer, heart disease, diabetes and other chronic conditions see it as a lifesaver (“Romneycare model a dud,” March 7).
To say that reform is killing us on costs because we have the highest premiums in the nation ignores the fact that we held that dubious distinction long before reform. I agree that the high cost of medical care in Massachusetts must be addressed and that will require more reform. As to the cost of reform itself, the state’s new subsidized program reached its enrollment goal sooner than expected so it cost more initially but it leveled off sooner. The 2009 program costs were actually $69 million under budget.
Those results strongly indicate that Massachusetts reform is anything but the nightmare described by Graham. It’s literally saving lives.
- Jon Kingsdale,
Executive Director
Mass. Health Connector
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