There were a bunch of letters to the editor of the Times in today's paper about a recent editorial praising aspects of Massachusetts' universal health coverage legislation. The letters were skeptical of the "Massachusetts experiment" at best, outright hostile at worst.

(It should be noted that none of the letter writers — a founding member of Physicians for a National Health Program; the Executive Director of Mass-Care: The Massachusetts Campaign for Single Payer Health Care; the President and Chief Executive of the New York State Health Foundation; the President of the American College of Physicians; and the Director of Health Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think-tank — are exactly disinterested onlookers.)

The skepticism, I think, is still very much justified.  The legislation was pushed through by a governor looking to salvage a lackluster administration so that he could pursue higher office, and by a legislature so heady on its hubris, as one letter-writer notes, it forgot key aspects of universal coverage, like the, um, coverage part.  I know: details, details. 

My own saga continues. I recently re-enrolled, and have been wrangling with Commonwealth Care on the terms of my coverage.  I'm fairly used to it by now, so I can't complain, really.  It's going pretty smoothly, all things considered. 

About a month ago, I received my new card, and yesterday I got a letter informing me that my "Evidence of Coverage" was online with details of my plan.  I thought: hey, now that's service!  If I wanted to check it all I had to do was log on to their website.  Easy enough!

Well, not quite.  It was a bit of an ordeal, as these things sometimes are.  I had to register — which you fully expect to do — but once I had, I still could not log in. 

Instead, I got the following email:

Within 10 business days, your password will be mailed to your home address. If you have recently moved or changed your address, please call our Member Services Call Center to update your address. You also need to contact the Commonwealth Care Connector to report your address change.

They'd also be happy to mail a paper copy of my "Evidence of Coverage," which would likely arrive about a week ahead of my password. 

I mean, really.  Can you say "Mass-backwards"?