Massachusetts Universal Health Insurance a Sham
... according to at least one source, in today's Globe, who outlines the systems failure to meet any of the Institute of Medicine's five criteria for a successful healthcare system: 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.
Affordability is a huge snag. As the op-ed points out:
For middle-income people not qualifying for state-subsidized health insurance, costs are too high for even skimpy coverage. For an individual earning $31,213, the cheapest plan can cost $9,872 in premiums and out-of-pocket payments.The irony for me is that, were I to make, say, ten grand a year more, which i could definitely use, I would actually take home a couple grand less a year than I do now. As it is, I'm not exactly living high off the hog. But I can't afford to a pay raise.
I think you could increase the accuracy of the title of your article by remove the words "Massachusetts Universal".
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Part of the problem, according to the op-ed in the Globe, is precisely that the Massachusetts plan benefits private Insurance companies literally at the cost of those they insure. The Massachusetts solution has simply fed them a quarter of a million new customers who can't say no.
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I started purchasing health insurance privately for myself last year, after my COBRA benefits ran out. I was paying the same as my previous employer for a lower level of coverage, higher deductibles, yada yada yada. During that year they paid for nothing but a physical. I just got the notice from them that if I wanted to renew the policy, the premium would be 25% higher. 25%!!!!! For what?! I don't mind paying a big premium, but to go up again that much in a year - where is all this money going?
And watch them all act horrified when enough people finally get pissed off enough that we just nationalize the industry and put all the insurance companies out of business.
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Hate to tell you this, but 25% isn't a very large increase. Last year, mine went up 50%. I had to reduce coverage so that it would only go up 30%. It's going up another 18% on April 1.
If course, that doesn't include co-pays or dental.
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