Costs soar for Mass. health care law

[Mugu]

By STEVE LeBLANC, Associated Press Writer

BOSTON - Two years after the state's landmark health law was signed, the cracks are starting to show. Costs are soaring and Massachusetts lawmakers are weighing a dollar-a-pack hike in the state's cigarette tax to help pay for a larger-than-expected enrollment in the law's subsidized insurance plans.

snip

One of the most radical fixtures of the law is the so-called "individual mandate" — the requirement that virtually everyone have health insurance or face tax penalties. Anyone deemed able to afford health insurance but who refused to buy it during 2007 already faces the loss of a $219 personal tax exemption. New monthly fines that kicked in this year could total as much as $912 for individuals and $1,824 for couples by December.

snip

Under the law, anyone making less than the federal poverty level is eligible for free care. Those making up to three times the poverty level can get subsidized plans. Anyone earning more is required to get health insurance through their employer, on their own, or by purchasing lower-cost plans through the Health Care Connector, the independent state agency overseeing the law.

Businesses are also on the hook. Those with 11 or more full time employees who refuse to offer insurance face $295 annual penalties per employee. Already, 748 employers have failed to meet that threshold and have paid $6.6 million to the state.

Complete article by AP via Yahoo

[DS1]

1. I like being forced to pay into something which makes no promises of helping me

and in fact will try to deny my care every step of the way.

It was Romney's departing gift, but screw the legislators who voted it in place.

[JackintheGreen]

5. Well, in that case.

I'm trying to get some money to complete my graduate research in south India. I make no promises to help you, but I won't personally deny you care. I'll even send you monthly postcards! Interested? :P

[Submariner]

2. I found that the easiest way to real with this Romneycare health insurance scam

was not to file my MA income tax return. That $219 they were going to fine me I used last month for preventative care (blood tests and a doctor visit).

A mandated unaffordable health insurance scam rigged by multi-millionaire politicians. What a freakin' joke.

[Greyhound]

3. Ain't corporate welfare a wonderful thing?

:puke:

[bicentennial_baby]

4. I was discussing this with one of my Professors the other day...

She was telling me that the reason that the number of uninsured was so underestimated is that two different agencies came up with their own set of numbers on how many people here are uninsured, and since they couldn't agree (the numbers were vastly different), they simply split the difference. :eyes:

We'll be studying the MA system in my Health Economics class next Fall.

[SoCalDem]

6. That was Mitten's Plan all along..

Grab the fanfare for CREATING "universal" health care for MA, and then high-tail it outta there before the shit starts rolling downhill..

It's how republicans ALWAYS "fix" things..:grr:

[izquierdista]

7. Insurance vs. care

This article continues with the conflating of insurance and care. Insurance is for losers, or more accurately, people who don't want to be losers, losing something of great value to them in an unfortunate circumstance, for example, their car, their house, their good health. You can bet that people who have won the game of life, who have big fat bank accounts, don't need insurance to cover an unexpected loss. For them it is simply a business decision, whether to self-insure, or do they think their risk analysis is better than that of the actuary at the insurance company.

Where the whole debate misses the point is that people don't want or need COVERAGE when they are sick and injured, they want and need CARE. Care that comes from doctors and nurses analyzing their condition and supplying the corrective actions. Coverage comes much later, when it is time to see who pays the bill. In a truly socialized system, the bill gets paid by everybody (the government, single payer, Medicare or National Health Service, whatever you wish to call it).

As long as Republicans can detour discussions about CARE into discussions about COVERAGE, we will never make any progress. Progress would be to expand Medicare to more people and get more and more private care providers to accept what Medicare pays. Progress would be to expand VA care to more and more people (family members of veterans as well) and get more and more government paid care providers on the government payroll seeing more and more patients.