Posted on 06/23/2009 9:18:32 PM PDT by Lorianne
The debate over achieving universal health care can seem hopelessly confusing. But the issues are actually pretty simple when you consider the lessons of Massachusetts.
In 2006, state lawmakers seeking to broaden health coverage made it illegal to be uninsured. It works like this: Employers have to offer you a health plan. If you are jobless or don't like your employer's plan, you must buy your own. If you don't get one, you pay a stiff fine. This strategyknown as an employer and individual "mandate"forms the backbone of the national health reform bills now making their way through Congress.
On paper, the experiment was a resounding success. According to an Urban Institute estimate, the number of uninsured residents quickly fell from 13 percent to 7 percent following the law's passage.
And yet, something strange happened. Despite having health insurance, roughly one in 10 state residents still failed to fill prescriptions, ended up with unpaid medical bills, or skipped needed medical care for financial reasons. Hundreds of millions of dollars were spent to insure more Massachusetts citizens, but many people still weren't getting necessary care. What happened?
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
That would be Mutt Romney, for those few still absent-minded out there.
Sooooo....Mass makes a perfect example of the FAILURE of government healthcare/insurance to use when calling our Congresscritters....??
Until we hogtie the Trial Lawyers, physicians will continue to order high tech tests to CYA. Specialists pay in the hundreds of thousand of dollars per year for malpractice insurance. Make the lawyers use government run health care and see what happens when they have to accept their imminent death because some treatment is denied.
In the case of MA the initial plan (prior to Romney) became overloaded and the state eventually stopped paying the hospitals. The state was taken to court and lost. Then came Romney who played ball w/ the liberals and MA is again in a fix.
I’m not so sure of the situation in HI but when we were there last summer I heard some reports on the news about it being overloaded and I think the state was limiting who would be eligible.
Then we have medicare/medicaid....
There are no examples of this working anywhere...and we’re supposed to believe the govt can take more responsibility on and succeed. Even to a casual observer this is silliness.
And that’s not including all the folks who left the state for their health care, or all the folks who just plumb left the state.
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