Tag: "Massachusetts"

Massachusetts Turns to Premium Price Controls to “Control” Health Care Costs

Although Massachusetts government can fine people up to $1,116 a year for each month in which they do not have health insurance, it has not as yet figured out how to force health insurers to sell their products at a loss.

The Department of Insurance’s latest rejection of proposed health insurance rate increases has, according to the Boston Globe, created a situation in which “most” health insurers have stopped offering new health insurance in the Massachusetts insurance exchange (which is run by the Massachusetts Connector Authority).

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Apr 08, 2010 | 5 comments | by

What Universal Coverage Means in Massachusetts

Thousands of consumers are gaming Massachusetts’ 2006 health insurance law by buying insurance when they need to cover pricey medical care, such as fertility treatments and knee surgery, and then swiftly dropping coverage, a practice that insurance executives say is driving up costs for other people and small businesses.

In 2009 alone, 936 people signed up for coverage with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts for three months or less and ran up claims of more than $1,000 per month while in the plan. Their medical spending while insured was more than four times the average for consumers who buy coverage on their own and retain it in a normal fashion, according to data the state’s largest private insurer provided the Globe.

Full article on the gaming of Massachusetts’ health care system.

Apr 08, 2010 | 5 comments | by

Goodman’s Axiom in Massachusetts

I have said it so many times and it has been confirmed so many times, we might as well turn it into an axiom: The left only knows two ways to control health care costs: squeezing the providers and denying people care. This is from the Kaiser Health News:

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick asked the state legislature to grant his administration broad new authority to “review and reject” excessive rates charged by medical providers in hopes of curbing costs and making health care more affordable, The Boston Globe reports. Under a bill filed Wednesday by Patrick, the rates that “hospitals and other health providers charge insurers would be ‘presumptively disapproved as excessive’ if they increased faster than the level of medical inflation, and they could be rejected after a public hearing.” Insurance premium hikes that exceed 1.5 times medical inflation could also be rejected.

Feb 11, 2010 | 5 comments | by

How Much Do We Really Know About the Massachusetts Health Plan?

Massachusetts has health care and so the rest of the country would like to have that too. So we don’t (think) a state that already has health care should determine whether the rest of the country should.

— House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

Note to Speaker Pelosi: People in the rest of the country do have health care.

People in the rest of the country see real doctors, get real medications, and go to real state-of-the art hospitals even in California, the state that your district is in. What people don’t want, both inside and outside of Massachusetts, is the kind of health care that the Massachusetts-style reforms produce.

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Jan 22, 2010 | 13 comments | by

Who Really Doesn’t Understand ObamaCare?

From the very moment public opinion started going south on the president’s health plan, the White House and Democrat leaders in Congress began sounding a familiar refrain: The public does not understand the bill; they’ve been lied to, deceived and misled by the opponents; and once they learn how it really works, familiarity will breed…well, something other than contempt.

I have four problems with this point of view:

  1. If it is sincere, you would think the Obama Administration would have made a major effort to educate the public about how the bill really works; in fact, they have made no effort whatsoever.
  2. Since ObamaCare is modeled after the Massachusetts health plan, voters in that state should be better informed than even Obama himself about how it “really works”; yet Massachusetts voters resoundingly rejected the president’s plan in Tuesday’s U.S. Senate election.
  3. There was a lot of misleading information flying in all directions at last summer’s town hall meetings; but on balance, the average protestor appeared to be better informed than the average member of Congress.
  4. Among the chattering class — who are paid to express informed opinion — the proponents of ObamaCare are far less knowledgeable than the opponents.

“Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On”

 

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Jan 20, 2010 | 19 comments | by

Rethinking the Massachusetts Health Plan

We find evidence that Massachusetts’ individual mandate induces uninsured residents to conceal their true insurance status. Even setting that source of bias aside, we find the official estimate reported by the Commonwealth almost certainly overstates the law’s impact on insurance coverage, likely by 45 percent. In contrast to previous studies, we find evidence of substantial crowdout of private coverage among low-income adults and children. The law appears to have compressed self-reported health outcomes, without necessarily improving overall health. Our results suggest that more than 60 percent fewer young adults are relocating to Massachusetts as a result of the law. Finally, we conclude that leading estimates understate the law’s cost by at least one third, and likely more.

Full Cato study by Alan Yelowitz and Michael F. Cannon.

Jan 20, 2010 | 6 comments | by

WOW

   

         Brown             52%

         Coakley          47%

 

Goodness, Gracious, Great Balls of Fire

 

Jan 20, 2010 | 8 comments | by

How to Game Unwise Insurance Regulations: Lessons from Massachusetts

Harvard Pilgrim, a major insurer in Massachusetts, has discovered that about 40 percent of people who bought its non-subsidized individual plan in a 12-month period left after less than five months. While these individuals had coverage, they incurred an average $2,400 in monthly medical bills — six times the plan’s projections. This drives up insurance costs for the rest of the population.

Dec 09, 2009 | 3 comments | by

The Costly Insurance Exchange

Many people believe a highly-regulated health insurance exchange is the key to affordable health insurance for families not offered coverage through work. Massachusetts has an exchange similar to the one proposed in the Senate and House health reform bills. Yet, an analysis of the least expensive policies for a family of four in cities across the country finds the Massachusetts Commonwealth Connector to be more than three times as expensive as other cities.

Average-for-the-Six-Lowest-Cost-Insurance-Policies

Dec 04, 2009 | 11 comments | by

2009/11/3

Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, 1988:

Massachusetts will (now) be the first state in the country to enact universal health insurance. 

Oregon Governor Barbara Roberts, 1989:

Today our dreams of providing effective and affordable health care to all Oregonians have come true. 

Tennessee Governor Ned McWherter, 1992: 

Tennessee will (now) cover at least 95 percent of its citizens

Vermont Governor Howard Dean, 1992:

This is an incredibly exciting moment that should make all Vermonters proud.

Nov 03, 2009 | 6 comments | by
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