Mass. Pols OK Mandatory Health Insurance

AP ^ | 4/4/6 | STEVE LeBLANC

[SmithL]

BOSTON -- Lawmakers overwhelmingly approved a bill Tuesday that would make Massachusetts the first state to require that all of its citizens have some form of health insurance.

The plan — hailed as a national model and approved just 24 hours after the final details were released — would dramatically expand access to health care over the next three years.

If all goes as the supporters hope . . .

[BlueStateDepression]

Of course the insurance lobby pressed the seat belt issue. They see it as a way to boost profits.

I like to play a game with the cops on that note. I do not wear my shoulder harness much of the time. They pull me over and then they are hit with a moment of insight...OOOOPS he IS wearing that seat belt. Nothing in the law here says one word about shoulder belts so there is zero they can do.

I know that wastes there time and I prolly shouldn't do such a thing but I feel that forcing a seatbelt on adults is the same thing as forcing insurance on adults.....just plain WRONG.

[Bogeygolfer]

'The measure does not call for new taxes but would require businesses that do not offer insurance to pay a $295 annual fee per employee.
Can we properly call this socialized medicine ?'

I think we can. It is a tax however they phrase it but I think it comes down to who provides the financing for the care. If the fee goes to a government run program or to a private carrier who is forced to play under excessive government rules then yes it's socialized medicine IMHO. A big movement is afoot to try to force the funding but handle it thru the private sector or insurance carriers. It's not socialized medicine but its sure socially mandated.

[maryz]

Baldacci doesn't seem to need any ideas, from what I read recently! ;-)

[Northeastern_Realist]

Because hospitals can't ethically turn away an uninsured person. If someone gets in a car accident and needs emergency surgery, that person will not be left to die because he doesn't have health insurance. Therefore, tax dollars are being used to fund his surgery. If he was forced to have insurance, you wouldn't have to pay anything. I don't know how this plan will effect insurance rates, so in the end you might be paying more with this plan than you would by just being taxed more directly.

[Lancey Howard]

The people who have money will leave. The people who want something for nothing will come.

Yep, Republicans will leave and Democrats will pour in - - I'm pretty sure that that's the whole idea.

[mewzilla]

We know folks who work in MA. And they live in VT or NH. Some have three- or four-hour-a day round-trip commutes. They can't afford to live in MA, so they spend those hours on the road and away from their families.

[MaDeuce]

You know what I would like to see ... the political donation lists of the Mass pols for the past 12-18 months. I bet there has been a HUGE jump of $$$ donation by Health Insurance companies ... just a hunch.

Also, I can see a US Supream Court challange to this law down the road. This is not like auto insurance.

Whats next ... mandatory home owners and/or renters insurance?

[wordoffaith]

They really fall for that? lol. How do they know you didnt just put the lap belt on when you were pulled over? I am suprised they just didnt write you a ticket assuming you would not go to court to contest it.

[chapin2500]

I too am a rebel. I took a blow-up doll as my passenger through the HOV lane. You have to have a sense of humor to live here.

[MaDeuce]

"The enterprising among us just find a way to register their cars in another state -- mostly NH."

That-a-boy ... good for you. We here in NH like the extra revenue and you don't have to pay that Excise tax ...
A WIN-WIN situation!

[Bogeygolfer]

Wow you and I are clearly misunderstanding each other. I work with health care insurance carriers nationally and I and most folks in the industry would rather die than support this legislation. For the most part insurance carriers do not support any form of socialized care or mandated care. That said there are always fringe groups in you guessed it, blue states, pushing for some new form or a baby step to socialized health care. I'm referring to a free market where a consumer can choose to buy insurance or to not buy insurance and if they do have a number of choices. As for the bit about canceling coverage when someone uses it I'm not familiar with any states that still allow that.

[ga medic]

There would also be many people infected with contagious diseases out in the population with no way to obtain treatment or care. Not a good idea in my opinion.

[charrisGOP]

"lower-income residents will be offered new, more affordable plans and subsidies to help them pay for coverage"

So the Massachusetts taxpayers will subsidize the lower-income residents.

[pleikumud]

People who are dumb enough to keep sending Kerry and Kennedy back to the Senate are dumb enough to think this is a good idea.

[Bogeygolfer]

I think just figured out how you misread my first email and the tenor to most of your posts. I believe that you are under the misunderstanding that the insurance industry and their lobbyist are behind this. It's logical at first blush since it would seem to be in their interests. It is not in their long term interests...their long term interests rests with the free market and in playing a part in the best health care delivery system in the world. As I said earlier there are always elements within the industry who do support some compromises...primarily forcing payment but allowing the private sector to deliver the services. That is a HUGE TROJAN HORSE for socialized medicine.

[BlueStateDepression]

I think you have a good hunch! As for what is next...look to wormans comp insurance.

My neighbor wanted to hire a couple guys to help out with all the tornado damage we got around here recently. He has his own business doing home construction, additions and updates. He had to come up with ten grand up front to hire those guys. This is not even getting into buying health insurance for those workers.

Needless to say, I got a front row seat witness of jobs that were NOT created in a market calling for them because of INSURANCE mandates.

People can deny it all they want to and embelish the value of some stock increases but I pose that jobs not created because of insurance mandates dust that argument completely.

[ga medic]

I am thinking that companies who now provide insurance coverage to its employees will opt to pay the $295 instead of the $1000 plus to provide insurance. This would force more out of employer paid plans and more into the state plan. I don't know how the state plans to provide the insurance coverage, but I think most employers would love to pay $295/year and not have to worry about insurance. If there employees will have coverage anyway, why would they go to the effort of providing a plan. It may not be socialized medicine to start out, but I think it will end up that way.

[BlueStateDepression]

There is nothing they can write me a ticket for, not to mention the premise of the stop was false. I was wearing my belt and have been thru it enough times with cops to know that when the lights go on behind me I pull over instantly, turn off my truck, and hold both hands out the window until directed to do otherwise.

I play the game by their rules. This way there is no wiggle room on their part.

I suppose if alot of folks did this they might just go back to the law and change it around, but till then, I ain't wearing the shoulder harness ecause nothing in the law requires me to do so.

[JAKraig]

The problem is a big one. Mass is already a more expensive place to live than most communities. If a small business has to pay $6000 for every 20 employees it has, the business will try to something to keep from having to pay it. And that $6000 is just the first year after 3 years it will be more like $18000. If you start taking $18,000.00 out of a small business mans pocket he will start finding a way to leave the state.

Insurance companies will start leaving when they see that they can't make a profit on the low mandated rates. When the small insurance companies leave there will only be 1 or 2 insurance companies left and rates will skyrocket just like they did in Kentucky when the State mandated rates.

This a very bad plan for people who work in Mass. If this goes through I would expect to see a rapid exit of any business that does not depend on sales in the state. Manufacturers will go bye-bye.

Once employers start leaving the state then the burden of paying the health insurance of the people will fall on progressively less and less workers and companies. It will lead to an increasing rate of exodus.

It will be a boon for areas near Mass.

[Myrddin]

I don't see how mandating private insurance would autmatically raise government taxes.

If you have unemployed, indigent and lazy people who won't or can't work, who pays for the mandatory insurance? They don't have any money. It doesn't grow on trees. It will have to be confiscated from someone who does have money. Taxes. People who have money and don't want to be fleeced by the government to pay for someone else's insurance will vote with their feet.