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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.

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.

Sorry for the misunderstanding. We seem to be more in line than I first thought.

My buddy had a state farm payout when his house burned and when an uninsured driver ran into the back of his car.

He was recently cancelled 'because they wanted some painting done" at his house. The gal that talked to him about having that stuff painted said her husband would come and do the work so he could remain insured.

Point of this is that when they want to cancel you they do. Nothing will stop them when they are the caretakers of their own hen house.

Here in Illinois insurance companies write alot of their own rules and have very little, if any, state supervision. YET it is the law to have auto insurance. If you do not believe me, call the Illinois Department of Insurance (after choosing English from the menu of spanish words) you can ask them what part of that agency deals with oversight of mandated auto insurance policies.

Then you can laugh when they say that is not in their job description. As that is exactly what they told me when I was told that insurance companies set their own rules for how an underinsured claim can be filed.

IMHO if the state mandates then the state has to oversee and it is no longer a free market enterprise. Here the insurance lobby got the best of both worlds. They get a law mandating purchase with STIFF penalties for not doing so...... and they get to set their own rules about claims with impunity.

Sure seems to me that they play both ends against the middle and laugh all the way to the bank.

When I was 18 I bought a brand new pickup truck. My insurance premium (straight and clean driving record) was more than my truck payment. Yeah I call that a racket.

When an insurance company can stall payment for three years when the at fault driver was 17 blowing a a .123 after being two lanes away from his own.......something is very very wrong....and I offer this is a result of them being allowed to make their own rules and the consumer having no choice but to purchase the product under penalty of 500 dollar (or more) fines.

For the most part insurance carriers do not support any form of socialized care or mandated care.

It seems to me that for a long time anyway, MA was far in the lead as to "mandated benefits," esp. the most stupid ones! Is this still true, do you know?

I've also seen something recently about companies that don't provide health ins. offering group rates on an ins package that includes only the routine stuff practically anyone can afford -- just no coverage for serious stuff, which sounds backwards to me. But what do I know?