Massachusetts is pushing aggressively towards universal health coverage for its residents. At a recent briefing sponsored by the Alliance for Health Reform and the Kaiser Family Foundation, the architects of the state’s health reform plan bragged about the number of newly insured residents. The counterargument to their lofty rhetoric came from Grace-Marie Turner, the founder and president of the Galen Institute, a well-known public policy research organization in Washington DC. Below are some of the important points she raised about the Massachusetts health reform initiative as stated in today’s Galen Institute Newsletter:

• It’s easy to get people to enroll in health insurance if you make it free or nearly so to them. The great majority of those newly covered by insurance are in plans completely or heavily subsidized by the taxpayer. Of the 330,000 newly enrolled in insurance, at least 232,000 are getting free or heavily subsidized coverage.

• The hard part is convincing people who don’t get subsidies — and who face growing penalties for not enrolling — to buy insurance. And the state has the audacity to tell residents what they can and cannot afford to pay. For example, if your family income is $70,001, the state says you can afford to spend $550 a month, or $6,600 a year, for health insurance. If you don’t buy it or get a waiver, you will be fined. The penalty now is as much as $1,824 for a couple and will go up again next year.

• The plan is starting to strain the state budget as well. Gov. Deval Patrick has asked for $869 million for fiscal 2009, but state authorities warn the cost will be closer to $1.1 billion — about as much as the state pays for its total public safety budget. The state also is concerned about another 30,000 - 40,000 people who have job-based coverage now but could be added to the subsidy rolls as well.

• Insurance costs continue to rise. The state has approved a 12% rate increase for health insurance for next year.

• Some safety net hospitals are threatening bankruptcy. They still are treating a large number of people without health insurance, but the payments they receive for uncompensated care have been cut as part of the health reform deal.

• The state is finding that Massachusetts’ goal of universal coverage is increasingly elusive. Several hundred thousand people are still without health insurance and will be hardest to enroll because the majority of them won’t qualify for subsidies. They face rising health insurance costs, growing fines, or a complex waiver process.

• The shortage of primary care doctors is making it difficult in some parts of the state for people who are newly insured to find a doctor who will take new patients. One person wrote us: “Before, I was uninsured and couldn’t see a doctor. Then I made the sacrifice to buy insurance, but I still can’t find a doctor who will see me. So now I still don’t get to see a doctor, but it’s just costing me more.”

On the Galen Institute website, the following comment is posted from a Massachusetts resident regarding the state’s health plan and Grace-Marie’s analysis at the briefing:

I want to Thank Ms.Turner for being the honest voice on this awful law called chapter58.The facts she stated are true.We do not have “affordable” insurance but we are forced to buy into insurance with high dedutables and we must fill out masshealth forms that sign our property over to the state.The fact is when they asked the question on health insurance it was worded “would you want everyone to have health insurance?” This is why so many answered yes.The media will not report on this because they recieve advertising dollars from insurance industry.The state legislator are bought by the insurance lobbyist.The federal government is bought by the insurance industry.We cannot fight their wealth.The Commonwealth Connector and Health care for all are bureaucracies that do not care if we get affordable insurance.Jon Kinsdale head of Commonwealth Connector worked for Tufts insurance for 20years.John McDonough head of Healthcare for all is going to work in Washington DC.This Massachusetts health care law is a sham most get free or next to free care and they want the rest of us to pay for it.Two years later,most of us cannot afford their insurance so they are being fined.The state of Massachusetts has made beibg uninsured a crime.Thank You so much again Ms.Turner we do not have enough people willing to speak out for what this law is really doing to the middle income residents.

More info: Galen Institute, C-SPAN coverage of the briefing

Filed under: Health Policy