Mass Makes Mess for Dems and Health Care Reform
Dear President Obama
You seem to think that the reason the Dems did not do well in Massachusetts has to do with jobs. Maybe, but not quite.
It’s about how you don’t get it. And the people in Massachusetts see that in the way you have handled health care.
Now look at the mess you created. Your health insurance program is at risk. The Supreme Court just handed your opponents a blank check and the likelihood of changing that court now is very much in question.
Massachusetts was a bad model for reform
ERISA ties the hands and the feet of state governments that want to solve their uninsurance problem. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts came up with one of very few ideas left over to them. If it works at all in Massachusetts, and people will argue that, it is because Massachusetts is a relatively high-income state with relatively few people uninsured.
To try and apply that model to states like Louisiana, Texas, or Nebraska is misguided at best. To be blackmailed by the likes of Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) is insulting. To ask the people of Massachusetts to pay for it? Oops.
And if you can’t get something right that they understand, how can you get anything else right?
Do you think that everyone in the state of Massachusetts is as noble about health care as Senator Kennedy? They don’t all live in Hyannis Port.
Try my job
If you want to understand health care and health insurance, I suggest you spend a day in my chair.
You can explain to the guy with a job but who can’t work, who can’t get a final decision on his workers’ compensation claim and therefore has no income, which he should pay, his rent or his health insurance for his family.
“I’m sorry, sir. Your short-term financial problems are not our problems. We play the hand we are dealt. And that means no money, no health insurance.” Maybe you can even explain to him how our employer –sponsored health insurance is the foundation of our health care system.
You can explain to the retiree, why she needs to enroll in Medicare. You can say, “We can’t continue your employer sponsored supplemental retiree health insurance if our retirees don’t enroll in Medicare. It’s too bad that your doctor doesn’t accept Medicare and that you were scheduled for surgery. I understand you trust this doctor, and that this is a stressful time for you. But find a doctor that not’s so greedy. We all need to sacrifice in this economy.” Maybe you can even explain to her why you think a single-payer system is a bad idea.
You can speak to the mother of the child who is too old to qualify to stay covered under the parent’s plan. “Yes, ma’am, I understand that your child needs medical care to be well enough to enter the work force. Yes, I understand that most of the jobs he would qualify for don’t offer health insurance. But rules are rules.
“Besides, we certainly don’t want to force all employers to provide health insurance. We want to force your son to buy health insurance or your employer to continue to cover your son.” I’m confident, with your rhetorical skills, you can win her over.
Just like you won over the people in Massachusetts.
I am very concise about my health,i never compromise with my health.i follow i rule that if we are fit than we do anything and if we have no good health than whole world money is useless for us.
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Great post, and in my opinion health reform is dying faster then our economy.
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The future of Obamacare is on its death bed in Massachusetts. The Governor and the Insurance Commissioner in its great wisdom has rejected the rate increases for all of the insurance providers in MA. This means that although the MA law mandates that everyone have health insurance or be subject to fines, no one can buy it here today because all of the insurance carriers have shut down their quoting systems. Unless the Governor reverses his decision or the courts over-rule him, all of the major carriers will leave the state. What a mess!
BCBS of MA lost $150 million last year due to rising costs of healthcare and tried to increase their premiums so they wouldn’t loose more in 2010. The problem is blamed on the insurance companies who like most carriers in MA are non-profit! And the few that are for profit average 4%.
Rather than go after the culprit which is the rising cost of care each year, they go after the insurance companies. Thats like putting a bandage on a severed artery—it wont stop the bleeding!
Rising healthcare costs are primarily driven by doctors and hospitals who are trying to avoid mal-practice lawsuits that could drive them out of business, since there is no one addressing tort reform. The medical providers over test, over medicate, over extend hospital stays for the terminally ill, bounce patients to specialists who try every expensive treatment available, all in the name of covering their behinds.
Until the people in office realize they dont know how to fix the problem by understanding and addressing the core drivers of health care cost, we will continue to see costs rise and stupid mandates passed inot law.
Thanks for the info and the input.
I trust then that you agree that a single payer solution would have made much more sense and should be acted on before massachusetts spreads to the rest of the country.