What would Mitt do?
Devil Patrick and 0bama will blame the insurance companies anyway and use it as an excuse for single-payer.
The only response the insurance companies can make short of shuttering their doors, is to reduce payment rates to health care providers.
Of course that would have effects elsewhere in the healthcare economy.
It seems as if Romney and Patrick didn’t think this thing through that thoroughly when they implemented it.
The Atlas Health Insurance Company is shrugging
The cost of my grandson's individual Blue Shield/Blue Cross almost doubled from $180/month to $300. It's not just an internet rumour.
Funny thing about price controls...they NEVER work.
Price Controls. Shortly after coming to power in AD 285, the Emperor Diocletian issued the Edict on Prices, which set maximum limits on the retail price of everything from grain and wine to shoes and even to lions. Violators of the edict faced the death penalty.
The results were three fold. In some areas where it could not be enforced, the edict was ignored. In cities, where most of the population lived, the result was a shortage. Unable to make a profit, merchants just closed their doors and the people began to go hungry. The last result was a surge in the black market, where prices shot up. The result of the Edict was that people either went hungry, or bought their food on the black market for exorbitant prices.
Diocletian’s government was forced several times to modify the Edict until AD 305 when it was repealed altogether.
Entirely predictable.
In fact I, and many others, predicted it.
The insurers in MA should just quit the state. Why play a game you can’t win?
Bean town Sully applied to the Massachusetts People’s Health Insurance Connector for insurance. They conducted an interview.
“Comrade Sully, do you smoke?”
“Yes, I do a little.”
“Do you know that Governor Romney does not smoke and advised other commonwealthers not to smoke?”
“If Governor Romney said so, I shall cease smoking.”
“Do you drink?”
“Yes, a little.”
“Governor Romney strongly condemned drunkenness.”
“Then I shall cease drinking.”
“Comrade Sully, what about women?”
“A little....”
“Do you know that Governor Romney strongly condemned amoral behavior?”
“If condemned, I shall not love them any longer.”
“Comrade Ivanov, will you be ready to sacrifice your life for the state of Massachusetts?”
“Of course. Who needs such life?”
Romneycare is what should have happened - at the state level. It could have been a good thing that a state enacted this legislation. That way the other 49 could have watched the collapse from a safe distance and learned that it doesn’t work. Unfortunately, we now have this on the national level and we’re all in the collapse.