Massachusetts Health Care Reform Is A Failure.

[Cleita]

This is the plan the Obama administration wants to bring to us.

THE BOSTON GLOBE
By: SUSANNE L. KING

Mass. healthcare reform is failing us
By Susanne L. King
March 2, 2009

MASSACHUSETTS HAS been lauded for its healthcare reform, but the program is a failure. Created solely to achieve universal insurance coverage, the plan does not even begin to address the other essential components of a successful healthcare system.

What would such a system provide? The prestigious Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academy of Sciences, has defined five criteria for healthcare reform. Coverage should be: universal, not tied to a job, affordable for individuals and families, affordable for society, and it should provide access to high-quality care for everyone.

The state's plan flunks on all counts.

First, it has not achieved universal healthcare, although the reform has been a boon to the private insurance industry. The state has more than 200,000 without coverage, and the count can only go up with rising unemployment.

More at: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/03/02/mass_healthcare_reform_is_failing_us/

[area51]

1. I've also heard the MA plan was a failure.

You can't force people at gunpoint to buy into GingrichCare, which I call because Newt Gingrich wanted a law to force people to buy individual policies, which are much more expensive than group insurance.

[Cleita]

8. Massachusetts health plan and Medicare prescription part D are the

petri dishes for failed plans that allow the private insurance industry and big PhRMA to write legislation and empty the coffers of tax dollars that go to Wall Street instead of to health care. Do we need to repeat these mistakes on a universal and national basis?

[ItNerd4life]

2. I'm curious. Does anybody know how much Medicare costs per person?

Is it cheaper than current medical coverage?

[Cleita]

5. Here's a chart that analyzes it.

http://www.amsa.org/business/Medicare%20Report.pdf

The average is $5,694 per person until the last year of life where it becomes $22,107 in the last year of life. These are people 65 or older or who have an end stage disease that insurance won't cover.

[MannyGoldstein]

3. As A Mass Resident, I Think It's Strong To Say It's A Failure

I've badly wanted universal single payer health care for years, and have campaigned for it. However, Mass' current plan is definitely a big improvement over what we had before.

Saying it's a failure is like calling an Olympic athlete a failure for only winning bronze medals.

[Cleita]

7. If you feel that way, you could write the doctor who wrote the article and tell her. n/t

[steelmania75]

4. Are you sure about that?

[Cleita]

6. Me? I'm just the messenger.

However this isn't the only source who has reported on this. A Massachusetts doctor was on TV last week saying the same thing, that some of his patients weren't getting the health coverage they needed and still couldn't afford a lot of it.

[Vinca]

9. I posted on a thread a couple of weeks ago about a woman I met

whose husband is an insurance agent and they can't afford to buy Massachusetts health insurance. As long as there is profit involved, it will never be affordable enough for everyone.

[Cleita]

10. Yes, I remember your post. The evidence just keeps coming and I hope

our new H&HS Secretary takes notice.

[fascisthunter]

11. I didn't think it would succeed

I agree that everyone should have healthcare, but punishing those who cannot afford it, is stupid and a bit fascist.

I wish our government would stop fucking around due to a market driven ideology which is a failure, and make healthcare universal. Socialize healthcare! People are dying so that a greedy minority can rip people off.

[Cleita]

12. Health care should be recognized as a human right like it is in other

industrial countries, not another means for Wall Street to make money. It's a shame that an estimated 18,000 people a year die in the United States from curable diseases because they couldn't afford the health care, that homeless people are allowed to die in a field from terminal cancer because the hospital wouldn't give them a bed to die in. This happened in my community. It's a shame that our infant mortality rate is on a par with third world countries.

[fascisthunter]

13. It's Morally Reprehensable... Our Economy Benefits from Death

great incentive....

"winners and losers" - sociopath

[Cleita]

14. ...

:kick:

[Fireweed247]

15. Maybe we should all email this to Obama

Fire the Insurance Industry! We will be fine without them.

[Cleita]

16. There is plenty of other evidence arising besides this. Obama

and his new Secretary of Health and Human Services should be made aware of this.