Learning From Massachusetts

By Author: Norris Rios
Total Articles: 572
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History is like a stray dog. Everyone comes into the room to claim ownership, each one offering different ways of tempting the dog to come their way. They hope that, if they can claim ownership of the past, they can use it to influence opinion today. Except the sad fact is there's no such thing as absolute truth and, no matter how much anyone tries, people can always find different ways of selecting information and giving it meaning. So what may be presented as cut-and-dried one minute can be disputed the next with a summary of "facts" that looks equally convincing.

Let's go back five years. Mitt Romney faced a decision. The lawmakers of Massachusetts had produced a bill to reform health coverage. Without hesitating, he picked up his pen and signed it into law. This is now called RomneyCare and universally hated by the Tea Party and other conservative groups. Indeed, the unhappiness is so great within the GOP that it may affect Romney's run in the 2012 Presidential Primaries. So what exactly is wrong with the bill Romney signed into law and what can we learn from this five years of experience?

Well, the conservatives ...
... object to RomneyCare because it introduced a mandate. For the record, there are just under 4 million taxpayers in Massachusetts and, in 2008, less than 45,000 were exempted from the penalty for failing to pay for a policy. So, to the outside world, it would look as though Romney provided a direct model for the federal law, now labelled ObamaCare. Indeed, perhaps worryingly for the GOP, all the recent polls in Massachusetts confirm a majority of adults are satisfied with what's formally called Commonwealth Care. In particular, they approve the provisions that prevent an insurer from using a pre-existing condition to reject cover. Although some small business owners are resentful because their costs have risen, the general view is positive except for one "small" issue, namely, that Commonwealth Care does not actively control the costs of treatment and drugs. Around America, pharmaceutical companies, medical device manufacturers, hospitals and clinics have been increasing the prices for their products and services. So the savings that should have flowed from the mandate have been lower than projected.

That said, the real improvements have been in the Emergency Rooms around the state. Fewer people are delaying treatment until it can be declared an emergency. The result is easy to see. Waiting times have been reduced and the quality of care in ERs has improved because the doctors are under less pressure. More importantly, hospitals report a general reduction in the number of people being treated for more serious diseases and disorders. Early diagnosis and treatment has significantly improved the health of those living in Massachusetts. So Mitt Romney now has a very popular law providing health insurance coverage in his own state while running on a political platform calling for the repeal of ObamaCare which, in essence, is the same as his own. For those living outside Massachusetts, get as many health insurance quotes as possible to ensure finding the best health plan at the most affordable rates. You will not get all the benefit of ObamaCare until 2014.