Free Republic

Our experiment wasn't perfect," said former Governor Mitt Romney, speaking to an audience of New Hampshire Republicans about the Massachusetts health-care overhaul he signed in 2006. "Some things worked; some things didn't. Some things I'd change." Well, fair enough, though it's a lot easier to say what didn't work than what did. Five years ago Romney confidently predicted that under the law he and Senator Ted Kennedy collaborated on, "the costs of health care will be reduced." But the price of health coverage in Massachusetts is rising faster than ever -- premiums for individual insurance policies are up 6 percent more...

"Will Commonwealth care cost taxpayers more? No!" So wrote Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in November 2004, the economy then still in full bloom. "Neither the state nor the taxpayers can afford to pay more."

In 2006, the state of Massachusetts required every single one of its residents to get health insurance, and every single one of its businesses to provide it. Otherwise, residents and employers would be fined. Some have asked, as national healthcare reform works its way through Congress, is there anything we can learn from the Massachusetts experiment? Yes, according to the state's treasurer, interviewed today on CNBC: Whatever you do, don't do what we did. In a blisteringly frank interview, treasurer Tim Cahill laid out some jaw-dropping stats, which eviscerated the plan and excited every conservative's worst fears about government getting...