Commentaries
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July 23, 2010
Health reform in the Bay State has increased demand without increasing the supply of health care providers, it continues to keep people in the dark about the true cost of health care and health insurance, and has not changed incentives for people to seek more affordable options or for a truly competitive marketplace. Washington’s health overhaul law has the same structural flaws. When President Obama told MSNBC’s Chuck Todd in an interview last week that his new health reform law “not only makes sure everybody has access to coverage but is reducing costs,” the quote was evocative of Romney’s promise. Washington’s reform effort doesn’t even pretend to achieve universal coverage, and Massachusetts’ experience shows the near impossibility of containing costs in a system where incentives go in exactly the opposite direction.
July 22, 2010
If Massachusetts is a harbinger – and all evidence indicates it is – the new federal health overhaul legislation is headed for serious trouble. Massachusetts and the federal government built their reform efforts using similar architectural plans – strict regulation of health insurance, mandates on individuals and businesses, expensive new taxpayer-funded subsidies and a major expansion of Medicaid – and both share a central structural flaw in failing to address rising health costs.
April 29, 2010
States have until tomorrow to let Washington know if they plan to participate in one of the first government programs to be launched under ObamaCare—new high-risk pools for the uninsured. The question states should be asking is: Why would we participate?
April 25, 2010
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi famously said before Congress voted on her massive health overhaul legislation that "we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it." Now that the bill has been signed into law, the American people are finding a lot not to like -- from a new federal requirement that every citizen must have expensive government-defined health insurance to a mandate that states dramatically expand access to their Medicaid programs.
April 1, 2010
It didn't take long for businesses — especially in Illinois — to start feeling ObamaCare's job-killing punch. While most of the punishing mandates and taxes don't start immediately, public accounting rules operate on a more timely basis. Some businesses have disclosed that their value will be negatively impacted by the new health reform law. In the last week, four major Illinois-based companies — Boeing, Caterpillar, Deere & Co. and Illinois Tool Works — have announced they will take charges of $150 million, $100 million, $150 million and $22 million, respectively, because of one provision in the new law.
March 17, 2010
Former Massachusetts governor and likely 2012 presidential aspirant Mitt Romney has been on the wrong side of the defining political battle of our time. Mr. Romney claimed earlier this month on "Fox News Sunday" that the Massachusetts health reform plan he signed into law in 2006 is "the ultimate conservative plan." But there are many similarities between it and the ObamaCare loathed by conservative voters.
February 26, 2010
The focus of the health reform debate has shifted about a mile down Pennsylvania Avenue, from Capitol Hill to Blair House, where members of Congress and President Obama met Thursday to determine whether bipartisan cooperation on reform legislation is possible. The political dynamics do not bode well. The White House insists Mr. Obama is "adamant about passing comprehensive reform similar to the bills passed by the House and the Senate."
January 25, 2010
Interest in the Massachusetts health reform plan remains high as observers at the federal and state levels monitor its progress toward achieving universal health insurance coverage and controlling rising health costs. Many of the features of the Massachusetts plan are contained in legislation under consideration in Congress, including a bill offered by Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy’s Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. Therefore, it is worth assessing the experience with the Bay State’s reform initiative so far for lessons that may be useful for federal lawmakers.
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