On my, than some how the Heritage Foundation gave out wrong informatiion!
April 20, 2006
Understanding Key Parts of the Massachusetts Health Plan
by Robert E. Moffit, Ph.D., and Nina Owcharenko
WebMemo #1045
Any comprehensive plan to reform health care will contain complex, and likely contentious, provisions. The recently enacted Massachusetts plan, based on a proposal by Governor Mitt Romney, is no exception. It contains complex provisions that have raised questions and concerns. But much of this controversy stems from confusion about the provisions. Therefore, understanding these provisions, especially in the context of the larger reform, is important.
http://www.heritage.org/Research/HealthCAre/wm1045.cfm
Please note that the Heritage Foundation was hopeful in the piece you quote from THREE YEARS AGO: April 20, 2006.
On April 4, 2007 they gave an update: “As Massachusetts’s experience demonstrates, health policy is riddled with unintended consequences. They can be costly, both economically and politically.”
On October 28, of THIS YEAR, they wrote: “As a policy matter, the Massachusetts reform is a classic “mixed bag.” The state has achieved 97 percent coverage, its uncompensated care costs have declined by almost 40 percent, it pioneered market reforms that have created portability and personal ownership of private coverage, and it also experienced an unprecedented expansion in private health insurance coverage. Because of continued excessive regulation, benefit mandates, and special-interest spending, the state has not been successful in bending the health care cost curve downward. As former Governor Romney recently noted, universal coverage, or something close to it, does not translate into reduced health care costs.”
As usual with Mormons, context shows that they don’t have the unconditional support they claim. Hopefully, this may help those who have worried that Heritage has been tarnished by their ‘support’ of Romney.