Bend over, America: Here comes ObamaCare!
And we in Massachusetts should know. We’ve been grabbing our ankles for government-mandated insurance since 2006, and the results have been exactly the kind of stellar performance we’ve come to expect from state-employed bureaucrats:
- Our insurance premiums have risen twice as fast as the national average!
- We have some of the most expensive insurance rates in the country!
- Middle-class families without insurance are slammed with huge fines.
- Cheaters are gaming the system by signing up when they get sick, spending tens of thousands of other people’s (a.k.a. “your”) tax dollars, then dropping their coverage!
- And it’s costing hundreds of millions more than we were originally promised!
The kicker? Massachusetts bureaucrats are now punting on the system and proposing a new approach that involves limiting our access to hospitals and treatments, and limiting payments to our doctors.
Controlling Massachusetts’ soaring medical costs, many health care leaders believe, may require residents to give up their nearly unlimited freedom to go to any hospital and specialist they want.
“You can’t reap these savings without limiting patients’ choices in some way,’’ said Paul Levy, chief executive of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. “It’s a huge issue, it’s huge.’’ Dr. James Mongan, president of Partners HealthCare, a Beth Israel Deaconess competitor, agreed that it wouldn’t “work without some restriction on choice.’’
The more common phrase to describe the new Massachusetts plan is “rationing.”
And just as we’re figuring out how bad our system sucks, the Senate Finance Committee voted to impose it on the rest of America.
Perfect timing!
Wendy Williams of Cape Cod recently wrote an account of her life in the MA health care system for the Wall Street Journal. She and her husband have had coverage for years, but the state just declared their coverage insufficient and is demanding they either dump their affordable plan and pay much higher premiums, or pay a huge fine.
The mandate in Massachusetts was sold as something that wouldn't penalize people like my husband and me. But those political promises were only good for as long as it took to get the mandate enacted into law.
We now know that, even if you buy into the bogus ObamaCare math, middle-class families are going to get hit with a $4,800 a year health care “tax” to cover this plan. And what we in Massachusetts know is that this estimate is probably a fraction of the REAL costs.
And Deval Patrick and Barack Obama want to do this to the rest of America? Too bad they can’t be sued for malpractice.
"The truth is something [Warren] probably prefers not to confront. Harvard doesn’t come calling just because you’re a smart lawyer and a terrific teacher — not with Warren’s modest, Oklahoma upbringing and non-Ivy League education. She is not your typical Harvard professor. At a certain point, when the law school was under pressure to promote diversity, she represented a three-fer: a great lawyer with a national profile, a woman, and a minority, at least by virtue of family lore. "
-- Joan Vennochi
