BuckeyeBlog

In my previous post, I made a claim in the comments section that I thought little good would come from any health care “reform” bill passed by Congress. A new paper by Greg Scandlen on the Massachusetts health care plan illustrates why I think this. The Massachusetts Plan has many features similar to those being considered by Congress (a mandate that almost everyone purchase insurance, subsidies for some in the state to purchase insurance, an expanded Medicaid program, etc.). As Scandlen shows, the residents of Massachusetts aren’t faring well under it:

It’s raised costs. The plan costs 1/3 more than it was projected to cost and health care spending on a per-capita basis has gone up more than the national average.

It’s hurt the state’s residents. Fifty-one percent of those required to have coverage under this plan said their health care costs have gone up and 60% say the law is hurting them. A majority of lower-income people do not support the law. Wait time for doctors has increased and the usage of emergency rooms has gone up by 17%.

We can expect something similar for the rest of the nation if the health care legislation being debated in Congress becomes law.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 11th, 2009 at 2:19 pm and is filed under Constitutional Government. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.