In today’s Globe (“Lost in the Labyrinth“), columnist Sam Allis explores “the labyrinth called Chapter 58″ and gets a “case of the vapors.” From all appearances, seems like he talked with Codman Square ED Bill Walczak and no one else. Bill is a dynamic health center director who’s done a great job at Codman; he’s also been a persistent critic of Chapter 58 since day one. In the process, Allis seriously misinforms his readers:
Walczak ran the numbers on a hypothetical 58-year-old woman who earns $32,000 a year. Under Commonwealth Choice, her cheapest option costs her $4,400 a year in premiums. There will also be a co-pay every time she sees a doctor, but she first must exhaust a $2,000 deductible to get anything back at all. If hospitalized, she’ll face a 20 percent coinsurance payment. …
Everyone in the state must have annual proof of membership in some health insurance program to avoid fines. Without proof, the state will come after you. The fine for not enrolling in a Chapter 58 program can run as high as $912 a year. Say I’m earning $31,212 – 300 percent of poverty and, like the hypothetical woman, am forced into Commonwealth Choice. But I don’t sign up for it because my company has dropped overtime pay, my wife’s salary has been cut in half, and my balloon mortgage just ballooned.
So what’s going to happen to a criminal like me, or the 26-year-old criminal struggling in a start-up, or the criminal restaurant cook? Will we be dragged off in the middle of the night by storm troopers and thrown in the clink? Will the state garnish our wages and hasten our descent into bankruptcy?
Well, no. In fact, the “hypothetical 58-year-old woman” will be subject to no penalties. And nobody will be “dragged off in the middle of the night by storm troopers and thrown in the clink.” Geesh, Sam, don’t let facts get in the way of a juicy line. Just a patina of fact checking here could have avoided misleading your readers.
There’s lots more to chew on here. Just one more thing for now, not for Sam, but for Bill. OK, Bill, we know you hate Chapter 58. What, please, after two years, is your alternative? It’s not like the State could have done nothing and kept the status quo. The “status quo” — to the extent there was one — was a status quo MINUS hundreds of millions in federal Medicaid dollars exclusively devoted to the Massachusetts health care safety net.
Lots of folks know the Christmas movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” where Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey gets to experience what the world we be like had he not been born. We need to envision a Massachusetts health care “Pottersville” that shows what the world would be like had we not done Chapter 58. Here are just a few elements — a massive financial crater right in the middle of our health care safety net (with community health centers in the middle of the bulls eye), rising numbers of uninsured, exploding uncompensated care costs, and providers screaming that the sky is falling.
And that’s the truth.
John McDonough
Thomas Jefferson said a two party government will ruin the Country! Well I guess he was right.The truth is our country is on the way to ruin thanks to both parties.What will be left for future generations?We are all responsible for ignoring State and Federal so called leaders.Stop voting Demorcrat or Republican and vote on merit, honesty,.Term limits is an absolute neccessity.
Scott,
Tremendous stress which is totally unhealthy and unproductive doesn’t include outrage at our goose-stepping legislators and slick governor who all don’t care about what we are going through, not to mention that they obviously santion extortion and collusion.
Last week, Parick’s aides were still saying this is great success this is. They aren’t interest in hearing about the financial problems it is causing. Most of the aides are rude which is probably done on purpose so people will give up and go away.
The Connector is now in the disenrollment phase which means that they can dump people from the Commonwealth Care plans in order to save the state money while they collect penalties because now those people are uninsured – just mess up the paperwork and/or make it nearly impossible for people to reenroll on time and blame it on the people – that about sums it up. 13,000 have been dumped according to an entry on WBUR and Saturday morning, I received a phone message regarding hundreds of frantic people in one of the counties near where I live who have been dumped and have no idea why – they weren’t even told about reenrollment.
Another way to save the state money is to double the copays for the low-income people enrolled in Commonwealth Care. Many of these folks can’t afford to use the insurance at the present copay costs. (I’ve read testimony on this that was put out by one of the outreach agencies and the article under discussion on this blog also speaks of this problem.)
When the new copay costs kick in on July 1 (at double the cost as mentioned), even more Commonwealth Care members will be unable to attain care.
This so-called health care reform had nothing to do with our health or well-being from the get-go. Follow the money trail, check out who has used the revolving door (Barrios, Travaligni just to name two) and take a close look at what has been going on since day one with “policy changes.” It’s not rocket science.
MA is the guinea pig for the rest of the country and instilling the “M” word in people’s minds (M as in mandated health insurance) while falsely calling it universal health care was part of the scam.
With McDonough going to Kennedy’s office, the plot thickens. Kennedy was in on this with Romney and Tommy Thompson. Both Patrick and Kennedy tout it as a great success although Patrick knows it’s failing (Kennedy surely must know, too). Patrick backs Obama, then Kennedy joins in. Patrick and Kennedy are begging Mike Leavitt to continue funding this bloodsucker with Federal money (1115 waiver), passing it off as the eight wonder of the world, Dr. Patel who is part of Kennedy’s staff also works with Obama on his health care policy (saw this on C-span) and now Mr. McD, who is one of the architects and staunch supporters of this law (who also receives tons of money from Blue Cross Blue Shield to run his non-profit) will be on the Kennedy payroll as a health care advisor.
In an article I recently read, Kennedy says that Mr. McDonough will be a valuable asset in helping the next president (either Obama or Clinton) shape health care.
Clinton wants what is going on in MA. No problem there. Obama says he doesn’t want a mandate except for kids. I wouldn’t believe a word Obama says with Patrick and Kennedy standing behind him, particularly with the latest news of who has joined Kennedy’s staff and the influence Kennedy seems to have with this law although it’s a state affair and he’s a US senator.
Almost makes me want to vote for McCain, not vote at all or move to another country.
Seen on this blog is the tremendous stress and waste of human capital brought about by mandated health insurance. Look at the squandered time and effort and suffering this has caused all on just one web page. Consider where we’d be had our political leaders said no to the multi-millionaire CEOs of Blue Cross Blue “Shilled” and chosen to lead the nation with the first successful roll out of single payer? Why are we not eliminating the 33% cut of insurers and leading the way with a true state wide precedence of single payer? This works for the entire industrialized world, especially Canada. Did you know that a 2004 national television poll named T.C. “Tommy” Douglas as the greatest Canadian ever, mostly on account of his forging their single-payer system? Why not lead indeed?
Brian Rosman as HCFA research director shouldn’t you be on the side of the uninsured?This has turned into a nightmare for most of the middle class and higher incomes,what about us?Don’t we at least deserve to be heard?When a family is paying as high as $1200.00 a month for insurance you can’t honestly say that’s ok.The facts are the insurance is not affordable.I don’t know how Health care for all or Commonwealth Connector can justify that.Why don’t all the residents count?If I was in your position I certainly would not be on the side of the insurance companies,I would be fighting for the citizens to get really affordable insurance and I certainly would not agree to them being “fined” when they couldn’t afford it.
Brian Rosman:
You say: “My view: chapter 58 is not universal, and sorely needs improvement. But things are much, much better off than before. The challenge is continue to move forward. But the debate has to be centered on reality.”
I say: It’s not rocket science. Before this law I didn’t have insurance. Now, not only do I have no insurance, I also have to pay penalties that severely hurt my ability to pay my living expenses. So things are NOT much, much better off than before for me and about 300,000 plus other people. That is centered on reality.
You say: “The Health Safety Net that replaced the Uncompensated Care Pool continues to cover all hospital costs and health centers costs for everyone under 200% FPL not eligible for CommCare, like always. If your employer offers unaffordable coverage, you can still get the same Health Safety Net eligibility. If your employer doesn’t offer coverage, you can get CommCare for free or $35/month (going up to $39 in July).
I say: First of all, I am not under 200% FPL so the Health Safety Net does zip for me and others who are not in this income bracket.
Secondly, I am self-employed and have a sporadic monthly income. The first things that must be paid are the roof over my head which includes property taxes, food in my belly and heat during the cold winter months and to heat hot water in the summer, and transportation.
What good is health insurance if I don’t have a place to live, food and heat just for starters and for the past several years this is getting more difficult to do? At the current prices, it’s even worse and I am not the only one in this state (or country) having such a problem.
Third thing: You have assumed that I am eligible for the $35/month plan. Wrong. By the way, you forgot to mention that copays are going up 100%. The $4 increase is nothing compared to that.
By the way, where I live people piece together their incomes in many ways due to the lack of decent jobs with viable salaries. I know farmers, artists, service employees, housekeepers, you name it, and we are all in the same boat. The mills around here have been laying off people for the past year or more practically non-stop. The businesses lay people off during the slow winter months. All of these folks, like me, can’t afford the insurance or the penalties.
So tell me, Brian, about the success piece? It’s a crime to fine hard-working taxpayers because they cannot afford to purchase health insurance. And we don’t all fit into your little slots.
You say: our uninsurance rate is the lowest of all states. We’re the only state where the number of uninsured is going down, not up.
I ask: So . . . how does that factoid help me and others in my boat? Should I break into song and dance?
You say: No one knows how many people will be paying penalties they cannot afford. No one will have to pay over $219 in penalties until April 2009. Next year, penalties go down for lower-income people.
I say: If there are 10 people paying penalties they can’t afford that’s not good. That’s what Deval Patrick said to me on the March 13 statewide call-in. But there will be many more than that. So, Brian, whether there are 10, 20 or 300,000, is that good in your opinion?
Furthermore, how will penalties go down next year for lower-income people? The penalty is one-half the cost of what the Connector decided people could afford. The cost of the premiums is going up 10% for Commonwealth Care in July so the penalties will also go up for 2008. Do the math.
The $219 that the Connector has stolen from me could have been used toward my heating oil delivery that is coming tomorrow ($502 for about 3/4 of a tank) or food this month. $219 is a lot of money. And in 2009, when I have to pay the penalties for being uninsured during 2008, what makes you think me (and others in this boat) will be able to afford the penalties at that time? Prices of food, heat and gas at the pump are going up but our incomes are either staying the same or going down. We’ll be lucky if we can pay for a tank of heating oil.
So, please explain your point when you say that penalties don’t have to be paid until 2009. Do you have some magic up your sleeve that will enable us to do this or are you totally out of touch with reality? Which is it?
As for the “robust” and “generous” hardship waiver:
A hardship means that you:
- Were homeless, or were more than 30 days overdue in rent or mortgage payments, or received an eviction or foreclosure notice.
- Received a shut-off notice, or were shut off, or were refused the delivery of essential utilities (gas, electric, oil, water, or telephone).
- Had non-cosmetic medical and/or dental out-of-pocket expenses (not including premium payments), totaling more that 7.5% of your household’s adjusted gross income that were not subject to payment by a third-party.
- Incurred a significant, unexpected increase in basic living expenses resulting directly from the consequences of:
- Domestic violence
- The death of a spouse, family member, or partner with primary responsibility for child care.
- The sudden responsibility for providing full care for an aging parent or other family member, including a major, extended illness of a child that requires a working parent to hire a full-time caretaker for the child.
- A fire, flood, natural disaster, or other unexpected natural or human-caused event causing substantial household or personal damage.
- Can establish that the expense of purchasing health insurance would have caused you to experience a serious deprivation of food, shelter, clothing or other necessities.
None of these dire circumstances apply to me or others I know at the present time, and I hope they never do. That doesn’t mean I can afford the insurance. I am 61 years of age, Brian. I know what I can and cannot afford. I don’t need to submit every living expense and bill to the Connector for one of their 28 attorneys to determine if I have a hardship or not – and then do the same thing all over again in another six months.
As for paying the penalties: Ch. 58 states that the DOR’s methods of enforcement will be used with regard to payment of the penalties for being uninsured. I phoned the DOR to inquire about this in January and was told: If a resident has not paid the penalties on or before April 15, 2009, a Notice of Assessment will be sent to said resident for “income tax debt.” There will be interest and late fees included that will continue to rise. If Notices of Assessment are not paid within a certain time limit (I did not ask what the time limit would be), they will levy a lien on property or seize bank accounts or garnish wages. Those ARE the methods of enforcement available to the DOR by the DOR person.
Brian, if you don’t know the law, read it. Then get back to me and tell me if treating hard-working taxpayers as Ch. 58 allows (along with the Connector rules) is OK with you.
P.S. “The Governor has promised that the penalty waiver process will be generous.” Gee, he promised that he was going to lower property taxes and mine went up $201 higher per quarter on February 1 and my next payment is due on May 1. (I also told him this on the call-in. I heard him say, “Hmmmm.”)
Let’s not forget that too many hard working families who hardly utilize health care are being mandated to buy insurance to the tune of $12,000-$15000 per year.
In reality though the connector doesn’t care about those people. The state government doesn’t care about those people. Health Care for All certainly doesn’t care about those people.
The burden of this law is on those hard working people who pay their bills and pay taxes. The burden of this law is on the businesses that are forced to buy coverage for their workers and, next year, the state will tell them how much insurance they need to buy for their workers.
Business is terrible out there and the state is not providing any relief. It now costs almost a $1000 to fill your oil tank at home. Imagine what it costs to heat your small store or restaurant. Food costs are escalating because of the fuel costs. The state’s answer is that they don’t care.
Mandatory health insurance is a tax. In times of recession, it’s not wise to keep raising taxes.
Diane’s substantive points are that
“The Connector tore apart whatever there was as a safety net for those who would have to remain uninsured because of affordability, either by the Connector’s account or our own, so now people are worse off than they were before.
Too many hard-working taxpayers not only have no insurance, they are forced to pay penalties they cannot afford, and there’s no safety net should they become seriously ill or injured.”
My view: chapter 58 is not universal, and sorely needs improvement. But things are much, much better off than before. The challenge is continue to move forward. But the debate has to be centered on reality.
My responses to Diane’s points:
“The Connector tore apart whatever there was as a safety net for those who would have to remain uninsured because of affordability” – What are you referring to? The Health Safety Net that replaced the Uncompensated Care Pool continues to cover all hospital costs and health centers costs for everyone under 200% FPL not eligible for CommCare, like always. If your employer offers unaffordable coverage, you can still get the same Health Safety Net eligibility. If your employer doesn’t offer coverage, you can get CommCare for free or $35/month (going up to $39 in July). CommCare is way, way better than the Pool ever was. It covers more care, at more places. You can go to CVS to get drugs, and to a physician for primary or specialty care. Enrollment is surging. What’s been torn apart?
“Too many hard-working taxpayers not only have no insurance, they are forced to pay penalties they cannot afford” – our uninsurance rate is the lowest of all states. We’re the only state were the number of uninsured is going down, not up. No one knows how many people will be paying penalties they cannot afford. No one will have to pay over $219 in penalties until April 2009. Next year, penalties go down for lower-income people.
There is process to waive the penalties, and that the Governor has promised that the waiver process would be compassionate. No one has had liens placed, and so on. I hope people facing penalties avail themselves of the waiver process, if the penalties would be a burden. But no one can factually complain now, before we see how many waivers are requested and granted.
“there’s no safety net should they become seriously ill or injured.” There is, and it’s easier to access than before. The new “medical hardship” criteria have made it much easier for people with incomes over 200% FPL to qualify for the Health Safety Net Program. Under the old rules, people would have to have medical debt of 40% of their income over 200% FPL to qualify. The new rules allow low income people to qualify with much less debt The scale starts at 10%, than goes to 15% and moves up, not reaching the old level of 40% until 600% FPL. The safety net is stronger now in many ways than before.
Brian Rosman
HCFA Research Director
Bill,
Thank you for your response to John McDonough. He has a habit of putting down anyone who criticizes this horrible law and/or dares to point out the truth. I thought Sam’s article/your interview totally called this nightmare what it is.
The Connector tore apart whatever there was as a safety net for those who would have to remain uninsured because of affordability, either by the Connector’s account or our own, so now people are worse off than they were before.
Too many hard-working taxpayers not only have no insurance, they are forced to pay penalties they cannot afford, and there’s no safety net should they become seriously ill or injured. You know, the social beggars and free-riders that DiMasi, Joffe-Halpern, Kingsdale and Gruber, among others, constantly refer to.
I hate to appear cynical, but seeing how poorly this mess was thrown together along with the lack of caring on the part of our elected officials, the governor, the Connector and some others, I feel compelled to say that I think the copays were doubled in the subsidized plans to discourage care in order to save the state money. The crowd running this show is getting desperate.
So, once again, Bill, I thank you for sticking up for the working poor and working class – for caring and having the courage to speak the truth even though your doing so may cause you some backlash.
John,
Tell me, do you think it’s OK to force me to pay penalties I can’t afford and if I can’t pay those, have my property liened or my bank account seized? That is what the law says.
If you do condone this, then you definitely need to get out of and stay away from health care. Health care is about caring for people – not only their medical woes but their well-being.
The stress alone from this law is bad for our health. The implications of this mandate in the daily lives of those of us in the trenches is more than you and your friends at the Connector ever imagined or could understand, not that any of you really care. So Sam wasn’t exaggerating at all with his “juicy line.” He gets it. You do not.
As for the hundreds of millions in Federal money for the MA health care safety net that might have been lost – there’s more to that story than you, the Connector and the people running this state have divulged. This mandated health insurance scam is so far-reaching, it’s frightening.
Thank you to the other truth-tellers who have posted. Looks like you, John McDonough, are in the minority.
I wish it was working out. But for me, it’s clearly not. My wife and I now pay 20% of our income just for premiums! We write a check each month equal to our mortgage payment! That’s absurd. Yes, I was uninsured in the past. I would have liked to have it, but the cost was excessive. Now, I’m not sure we’ll be able to remain in Massachusetts.
I just read the book “Overtreated” by Shannon Brownlee. Wow. You’d think the people at HCFA and officials in state government would have taken the time to understand how the medical care “market” really works and how cost increases of 10 – 12% per year are not really necessary, even with an aging population and new medical break throughs.
The AMA and drug companies are going to need someone with very strong convictions to stand up to them. If there isn’t anyone to do that, then we had better bet prepared for a complete melt down of this law and medical coverage in general. Look what’s it’s done to our local government budgets!
I have very little hope that the state legislature will be able to do anything significant, as long as these insurance companies, hospitals, specialists, and drug & device makers keep throwing their (our) money around to keep things the way they are.
Thanks for the compliment, John. I think the readers understand that Sam was using hyperbole in his storm trooper comment, and there wasn’t meant to be a link (and there wasn’t) in the article between the 58 year old woman and the $912 fine. The reality is that the actual cost for the hypothetical 58 year old woman from Fall River was wrong. Her premium is not $4400 per year – it’s actually $4552, with a $2000 deductible and 20% “co-insurance” for hospitalization. And that’s the cheapest plan.
On the matter of my persistent criticism of Chapter 58, I wasn’t opposed to Chapter 58 on day one nor am I completely opposed to it now. I tried to make it clear that there are things to like about Chapter 58 – expanded Medicaid, free insurance for those under 150% FPL, and reintroduction of eyecare and dental for adults on Medicaid are all good things.
The problem I have with how Chapter 58 turned out is having an individual mandate without a business mandate, and the decision to push more of the cost onto working class and working poor individuals as the cost of health care continues to rise. A business mandate (i.e., requiring businesses to offer decent health insurance) was originally part of the health reform concept. When it was dropped, while keeping the individual mandate in the bill, Ch. 58 became something that was antithetical to my personal belief that health care is a right that should be provided by business and/or government with minimal cost to the individual, and that the cost of health care should not be a terrible burden for anyone.
What we’re seeing is that an enormous cost is being placed on the shoulders of many working people who are just unfortunate to be working for businesses that don’t offer insurance or offer insurance that’s too costly to afford, and we’re seeing health care providers like Codman Square put in the position of taking on lots more bad debt because of the punitive aspects of Chapter 58. The safety net is being damaged in the process. If a recipient fails to renew Commonwealth Care, s/he is removed from insurance. If the recipient fails to make premium payments, s/he is removed from Commonwealth Care. If a person fails to take the insurance offered by an employer, s/he is ineligible for Commonwealth Care. Thousands of people covered by Commonwealth Care are starting to be churned out every month now, and it’s clear that a large number of them will not automatically reapply. In all these cases, the individual’s charges become bad debt unless the health center turns the patient away, which of course we will not do. It’s been pointed out that a person can get a waiver to exempt him/herself from having to buy insurance, but these are reported to be very difficult to get, and it’s unclear whether a person with a waiver is entitled to safety net coverage.
The alternative? First off, we could have had some realism when the bill was put together regarding the cost of Chapter 58. Many, many people involved with Chapter 58 knew it would cost a lot more, yet the view was that it would be “tweaked” as it was implemented. We could have told the residents of Massachusetts in 2006 that we were implementing a system that will cost an extra billion or two, and that we would need to raise taxes to do that. Polls have shown that people are willing to pay if it means that everyone has access to health care. We could have kept the business mandate in place and moved thousands of uninsured into employer insurance. We could have kept subsidized coverage at 400% FPL like the free care pool had, so that people making $32,000 would still be covered for something. We could have left the safety net intact by allowing access to the free care pool for more residents who have difficulty participating in the new system. And instead of creating punitive systems to try to force all residents into what is very costly and often bad insurance, we could have dealt with out of control health care costs. I hear we’re going to bring back the DON process. Unfortunately, this is a bit like closing the barn door after the horses are out, considering the billions that have been expended over the past few years creating the infrastructure for the system that costs so much today.
I’ve been in community health since I was 20, and I’ve tried to work with every health care system that’s come my way to benefit my community. In criticizing Chapter 58, I’m just sticking up for my working poor and working class neighbors, and for the safety net institutions that need to be protected as this thing continues to wherever it’s going. And that’s the truth…
“And nobody will be “dragged off in the middle of the night by storm troopers and thrown in the clink.””
FROM: 830 CMR 111M.2.1: Health Insurance Individual Mandate; Personal Income Tax Return Requirements
“d) Interest and Penalties under M.G.L. c. 62C, §§ 32 – 33
Interest and penalties under M.G.L. c. 62C, §§ 32 – 33 accrue on unpaid penalties under M.G.L. c. 111M, § 2 in the same manner as they apply to unpaid taxes. Interest on the penalty under M.G.L. c. 111M, § 2 commences with the due date of the original return without regard to extensions and continues to the date of the payment of the penalty.
(e) Enforcement
The Commissioner shall have all enforcement and collection procedures available under chapter 62C to collect any penalties assessed under this section….”
Everyone wants to be able to access the medical care of their choice if needed. That is MEDICAL care – not commercial, unaffordable insurance that is often designed to hinder medical care.
OK, so maybe it’s only penalty money that they’re after. This is an expense that people can’t afford in the first place, otherwise they would have aquired the insurance.
What do you want people to give up in order to pay for this product that they may not be able to afford to use once they have it? Believe it or not, a ten buck co-pay is a lot of money for a lot of people, much less a $2000.00 dedutable.
Here’s another hypothetical twist to Mr. Walczak’s 58-year-old woman: her employer offered company insurance for $450.00 per month. She couldn’t afford that either and so necessarily declined. Now, due to the evil “crowd out” provisons, she’s not even eligible for state insurance for 6 months, even if she wanted it and so pays penalties anyway.
In the end, can you please assure us that the law protects noncompliant Indiviual Mandate violators from “all enforcement and collection procedures available”? Tax collection law gives the DOR the power to enforce property and bank account leins, wage garnishment and civil court proceedings at will.
This law is worse that a labrynth. For many, it’s a trip down the proverbial rabbit hole.
I had to stop posting here because of the spin and out and out lies.I was also censored.But the fact that certain people like Bill Walczak has always spoken the truth about this awful health reform and so called Commonwealth Connector or Health care for all cannot or won’t tell the truth is a shame,I cannot believe this blog will not admit the law is a fraud and to try to sugar coat your agenda’s at the uninsured exspense.Right now this country is going down the drain because of greed,housing,banking,oil prices.The insurance industry is next.I hope you all remember what side you were on.
What is the problem?
The failure to detail the exemptions for those over 300% FPL but below other income levels is NOT unique to this article.
The Connector’s mass media drive rarely, IF EVER, bother to say ‘but here are the exemptions based upon income’…. Nearly all news articles omit those details as well.
Before singling out this article, you need to go after the Connector and ALL the media for giving so little pulicity to the exemptions.
Bottom line is that the COmmonwealth Choice products are NOT affordable for the vast majority the uninsured who do not get free or subsidized coverage based upon the demographics.
94% of the uninsured have incomes belwo 400% of FPL
93% of the uninsured have incomes of less than $60,000.
So far all Chpt 58 has porved is that you can give away coverage (free or very heavily subsidized.) It still has not made it affordable for the very group it was supposed to help.
Re: “Well, no. In fact, the “hypothetical 58-year-old woman” will be subject to no penalties.”
Well, yes, because if the woman in Allis’ column was 28 or 38 she would be subject to penalties. Just because a detail is off does not change the appropriate indictment of the harmful individual mandate. Please don’t hide beind the morass of details in this unbeleivabley complex and confusing law that was largely written by the MA Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance company.
Sometimes the truth is hard to say but it still needs to be spoken.
It is appalling that a group calling itself “Health Care For All” has chosen the path to support — and to give much needed political cover to — the individual mandate and its harsh financial penalties wrought on those solely for being uninsured.
Where is the outrage about this ridiculous health insurance system and so-called “bold reform”??? The Chapter 58 law only attempted major tinkering with a horribly flawed and broken system. Yes, it did do some helpful things for some people but did them in a way that is wasteful, expensive, unsustainable and often ineffective. This post ignores the horrors of the new individual mandate that forces state residents to purchase expensive private health insurance or be fined close to $1,000 annually (the state is saying “too bad for you” to the many residents who are trying to keep up with paying for the mortgage/ rent, heat, medicine, and food).
Where is the leadership that Massachusetts and the nation so desperately need on this issue??? Perhaps Barack Obama will be one of these leaders, and it looks like his friend Deval Patrick might be poised to help lead us there as well. What a wonderful legacy that would be.
A recent Op-Ed in the Berkshire Eagle quoted Governor Deval Patrick as saying: “…there’s a view out there that as long as private insurance is a part of health-care reform, we’re never really going to break the back of the pattern.” He called for serious consideration of a single-payer universal health care solution by the next administration in Washington.”
for info on health reform that puts people before profits visit
http://www.MassCare.org/about
http://www.HealthCare-Now.org
and
http://www.DefendHealth.org