Question about Massachusetts insurance "reforms"

[bluestateguy]

I've heard anecdotes (unconfirmed) of people from Mass. moving to NH or RI to get away from prohibitively expensive junk private insurance, or paying a fine if you go uninsured.

Can anyone confirm if this has been happening?

[Vinca]

1. I live in New Hampshire and have heard the same thing, but

I've never run into anyone who moved here to avoid their system. That said, I have met a woman who works at a local store who lives in Massachusetts and whose husband sells health insurance policies. Their family cannot afford insurance and she was stewing over the fine they were on the hook for.

[DCKit]

2. I saw an interview with Mitt Romney where he stated:

"Our biggest mistake was in involving the for-profit insurance corporations."

Had they gone with state-wide self insurance, self-regulation and created their own payment/accounting department, it would have been a state model of Medicare and affordable - and think of the fines they could have extracted for fraud against the system. They probably could have run it on fines and legal judgments alone for the first three or four years, 'cause criminals just aren't that smart.