Massachusetts Update
Couple fined: Must pay Massachusetts $1,000 fine because IBM’s health insurance is not generous enough.
Premiums double: for former health care speechwriter for Edwards, Obama and Clinton:
For the first time in my life, I am without health insurance and it is a terrible feeling… In D.C., I had a policy with a national company, an HMO, and surprisingly I was very happy with it. I had a fantastic primary care doctor at Georgetown University Hospital. As a self-employed writer, my premium was $225 a month, plus $10 for a dental discount. In Massachusetts, the cost for a similar plan is around $550, give or take a few dollars.
Doctor search for a Boston cab driver:
I get my health care through MassHealth [Medicaid in Massachusetts] and I went through 20 names before I finally found a doctor who would see me. I wasn’t going through the Yellow Pages. I was going down a list that MassHealth gave me!
The Boston cab driver’s experience is very interesting. This is what they call “univeral coverage” in Massachusetts and in Washington and at the Commonwealth Fund and in most health policy circles.
Nancy, this is what we can look forward to nationwide.
The Commonwealth Fund’s new report ranks Massachusetts #1 for access to health care. No kidding! The Commonwealth Fund ranked Massachusetts #7 overall.
http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Charts-and-Maps/State-Scorecard-2009.aspx
The taxicab driver and everyone else struggling to get health care in Massachusetts would feel a lot better if they would just read the Commonwealth Fund report, which says “Massachusetts has achieved the highest health insurance rates in the United States as a result of comprehensive health reform legislation.”
Brian, that just shows how totally out of touch the Commonwealth Fund is with reality.
Commonwealth and a whole lot of other policy groups obsessed with “access” have yet to figure out that coverage is not at all the same as actual medical care.
I like the story about the liberal Democrat speech writer coming to terms with what these guys are really talking about.
Neoconservative: a liberal who has been mugged by reality.
[…] People in Massachusetts have been fined because they have failed to buy government specified health insurance policies whether they need them or not. Even people with good corporate policies may run afoul of the law because their policies aren’t “generous enough.” […]