Change, and a sneak peek of what is to come.
I wasn’t really aware of this, but apparently Massachusetts passed a universal health care ‘law’ back in 2006 in a hope to be an example to the rest of the country about how great universal hearth care could be. The reason we haven’t been hearing anything about this is because it has failed miserably. But this is just on the state level. I’m sure that if Obama runs this on the national scale, things will be much better. And if you believe that… there is a bridge in Brooklyn I would love to sell you.
The DC Examiner has the full story:
To much fanfare from both right and left in 2006, Massachusetts became the first state in the nation to require all residents to buy health insurance. A new state health insurance clearinghouse was created, with taxpayers subsidizing those who couldn’t afford to buy coverage. Then Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican, promised that “every uninsured citizen in Massachusetts will soon have affordable health insurance.” Yet just two years later, Romney’s much-heralded “solution” — touted by many as the model for a national program — has become an embarrassing flop.
Just a year after the universal coverage law passed, The New York Times reported, state insurers were already jacking up rates to twice the national average. According to Dr. Paul Hsieh, a physician and founding member of Freedom and Individual Rights in Medicine, 43 mandatory benefits — including those that many people did not want or need, such as invitro fertilization — raised the costs of coverage for Massachusetts residents by as much as 56 percent, depending upon an individual’s income status. So much for “affordable” health care.
Small businesses with more than 10 employees were required to provide health insurance or pay an extra fee to subsidize uninsured low-income residents, yet the overall costs of the program increased more than $400 million — 85 percent higher than original projections. To make up the difference, payments to health care providers were slashed, so many doctors and dentists in Massachusetts began refusing to take on new patients. In the state with the highest physician/patient ratio in the nation, some people now have to wait more than a year for a simple physical exam.
The irony is that Massachusetts officials reluctantly admitted that, despite increased enrollment, the state is still far from universal coverage — the original goal of the landmark law. To make matters worse, Massachusetts is grappling with a multibillion-dollar deficit while Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick desperately tries to slow down those still-spiraling health care costs, which he said last week were “not sustainable.”
If this sounds just like Canadian-style socialized medicine, that’s because it is. Massachusetts residents now pay more for less access to health care, yet their state still has an uninsured problem!
On an unrelated note, wouldn’t you think that cheating on your taxes would disqualify you from holding the position of The United State Treasury Secretary? Apparently it doesn’t. CNN has this story. You can go read it here.
My head is about to explode from all the stupid it’s taking in. If you voted for Obama, why don’t you give me a day or two to cool off before talking to me right now. Most likely if I saw you I’d slap you across the face right now in the hopes it would keep you from being this stupid again in the future.