Posted on 02/21/2010 12:27:14 PM PST by Halfmanhalfamazing
MASSACHUSETTS'S UNIVERSAL healthcare law turned one in April. To survive, its guardians have had to make many changes, each of which has increased current and future government spending, increased the government's role in regulating the healthcare market, decreased individual responsibility to purchase insurance, and made certain that the plan will fall far short of achieving universal coverage.
The promise of the law was simple and seductive: Require people to purchase health insurance, make the insurance affordable, or at least tax-deductible, and then fine those who don't comply. Subsidies could come from the current money devoted to the Uncompensated Care Pool and the federal taxpayers. Universal coverage, then, would be achieved with little new spending.
Numerous problems existed with this plan, but the fairy tale quality appealed to politicians and the national media, so it passed to much fanfare.
Interestingly, the Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority, the bureaucrats in charge of implementing the plan, decided that the universal individual mandate does not apply to everyone, but rather only those who can afford the premiums. Therefore, nearly one in five of the currently uninsured will be exempt from the law.
The Connector Board also bowed to pressure and reduced the monthly premiums on the subsidized-but-not-entirely-free healthcare plans. This will increase the program's costs by $13 million.
Even at these reduced rates, the plans will still not be attractive to many. People earning between 151 percent and 300 percent of the federal poverty limit -- $25,000 to $110,000 for families and $15,316 to $50,000 for individuals -- are expected to pay up to 9.6 percent of their income on insurance premiums, or pay fines. (This 9.6 percent is before any co pays and cost sharing.) Meanwhile, taxpayers are still subsidizing them by as much as 94 percent of total costs.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Anybody around here got more specifics about what changes were made? The first paragraph lays out a lot more than the rest of the article seems to.
I think this might be exactly what Romney envisioned. This is where it was going to lead no matter what.
Yet after signing this POS into MA Law he thinks he’s electable as a Conservative.
Mitt is a Progressive-lite.
Absolutely it is Romneycare.
Failure is as failure does.
Punish the producers in society and reward the non producers in society.
Mitt has Ann Coulter’s support.
“Even at these reduced rates, the plans will still not be attractive to many. People earning between 151 percent and 300 percent of the federal poverty limit — $25,000 to $110,000 for families and $15,316 to $50,000 for individuals — are expected to pay up to 9.6 percent of their income on insurance premiums, or pay fines. (This 9.6 percent is before any co pays and cost sharing.) Meanwhile, taxpayers are still subsidizing them by as much as 94 percent of total costs.”
And libtards actually think that Obummercare will make health care MORE affordable?
He signed this nonsense into law, there’s nothing “Lite” about his Progressivism
Regardless of where the horses go, it's still the fault of the person who opened the barn door.
He flip flops so fast he doesn’t even have enough time to brown on one side.
no he is simply a Progressive...and a politician
“Mitt has Ann Coulter’s support.”
As well as Glenn Beck’s, Limbaugh’s, O’Reilly’s, Medved’s, etc...
That was a while ago though, what do these people think of him now?
FR link - http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1715902/posts
great point!
This is what happens with bipartisanship....or compromise...or whatever the term-du-jour is!
On this point Annie has Left the Reservation.
The ma state house and ma state senate the democrats control more than 80% of the seats romney tried to veto most of it but they just overrode it
It’s funny how almost everyone in the “conservative” media is so quiet about the failure of Romneycare. It’s very peculiar.
Romney isn’t dumb. He knew perfectly well that it would mutate into a leftist mess. And even his original plan included subsidized support for abortion and had a mandatory spot for Planned Parenthood on the Board of Directors.
Indeed!! Imagine, if you are not living it, the effect of having what amounts to a tax of a couple to several hundred dollars a month, that the state says you MUST pay, and you still have to pay for anything regarding medical care until you reach a deductible of between 1500. to 3000. (the lower the deductible the higher the monthly premium). No healthy person reaches that a year. Consequently you have hundreds of dollars off the top of you income that is no longer accessible to you. It is a tax payed to the state, and it gets you no return. The numbers you posted show that a lot of the folks the state deems can afford it, is poverty level by MA standards. Romneycare is a disaster, as most of us knew it would be. It has bankrupted people, kept young people from moving out on their own until much later in their careers, increased the cost of medical care and premiums dramatically, created shortages in doctors and long waits to see them, and driven business out of the state. Win/win for govt I suppose, not for citizens.
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