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Politics : American Presidential Politics and foreign affairs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: sandintoes who wrote (34711)	4/9/2009 1:49:23 AM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71588

Which health insurance mandate? ----- Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report State Watch \| Massachusetts Health Insurance Law Takes Effect [Jul 02, 2007] A Massachusetts law that requires all state residents to obtain health insurance took effect Sunday, USA Today reports (Appleby, USA Today, 7/2). Under the law, residents with annual incomes below the federal poverty level are eligible for no-cost care. Residents with annual incomes up to three times the poverty level can enroll in state subsidized plans, while those with incomes more than three times the poverty level can choose their own coverage from new, lower-cost private plans if they are not offered coverage through their employer (LeBlanc, AP/Long Island Newsday, 6/30). Officials estimate that 60,000 people will be exempt from the insurance requirement because they will not qualify for subsidies but will not be able to afford other coverage options (Belluck, New York Times, 7/1). ... kaisernetwork.org

To: sandintoes who wrote (34711)	4/10/2009 9:46:01 AM
From: Peter Dierks	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71588

RE: Romney Which health insurance mandate? Mr. Schwarzenegger wanted a plan, anything to claim victory. He's spinning it as "post-partisan" pragmatism. At least he's not calling it a "free market" solution, as did Mitt Romney after he pioneered a similar plan. Like Massachusetts, Mr. Schwarzenegger's program is built around the "individual mandate," which requires that everyone acquire insurance or else pay penalties. While bumping up subsidies for the uninsured, California would also lay down more severe insurance regulations, instituting price controls and compelling companies to offer policies to all applicants without regard to age or health condition. Such mandates have all but devastated the insurance markets in every other state where they've been tried, but then all this is the triumph of politics over experience anyway. Message 24206940 Insurance in Massachusetts is among the most expensive in the nation because of multiple mandates, such as premium price controls and rules dictating that coverage be offered to all comers regardless of health. Mr. Romney's cardinal flaw was that he did not attempt to deregulate and allow the insurance market to function as it should. Instead, Mr. Romney saw the status quo and raised. At first he suggested mandatory health escrow accounts for people who decline to insure themselves. Once the consultants and the liberal state legislature were through with it, Mr. Romney's initiative became the "individual mandate," a first-in-the-nation requirement that residents acquire insurance or pay penalties. The mandate in combination with other regulations effectively socialized the Massachusetts insurance market, and then Democrats on Beacon Hill added more subsidies and business penalties. Mr. Romney claimed victory anyway, heralding the new plan as "free market" as he plotted his GOP Presidential run. Inconveniently, however, both Hillary Clinton and John Edwards made Massachusetts the model for their 2008 health-care proposals. Message 24277658 Praise Mitt Romney. Three years ago, the former Massachusetts Governor had the inadvertent good sense to create the "universal" health-care program that the White House and Congress now want to inflict on the entire country. It is proving to be instructive, as Mr. Romney's foresight previews what President Obama, Max Baucus, Ted Kennedy and Pete Stark are cooking up for everyone else. In Massachusetts's latest crisis, Governor Deval Patrick and his Democratic colleagues are starting to move down the path that government health plans always follow when spending collides with reality -- i.e., price controls. As costs continue to rise, the inevitable results are coverage restrictions and waiting periods. It was only a matter of time. They're trying to manage the huge costs of the subsidized middle-class insurance program that is gradually swallowing the state budget. The program provides low- or no-cost coverage to about 165,000 residents, or three-fifths of the newly insured, and is budgeted at $880 million for 2010, a 7.3% single-year increase that is likely to be optimistic. The state's overall costs on health programs have increased by 42% (!) since 2006. Like gamblers doubling down on their losses, Democrats have already hiked the fines for people who don't obtain insurance under the "individual mandate," already increased business penalties, taxed insurers and hospitals, raised premiums, and pumped up the state tobacco levy. That's still not enough money. Message 25527338