All Eyes on Massachusetts Healthcare

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/art ... gD96HF5Q80
BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts' pioneering health care system, which requires nearly everyone to carry insurance or face fines, is about to be put to the test by this bad economy.

Unemployment in the state has climbed over the past three years from around 4.8 percent to close to 7 percent, meaning 72,000 more people are out of work now than when the law was signed in 2006. Many of the newly jobless may have to buy their own insurance.

Will they do it? Will the state penalize those who don't? And will this recession-battered state be able to bear the added costs of supporting the program?

With the Obama administration hoping to expand health care nationally, the fate of Massachusetts' program is being watched closely.

I have to ask the obvious... if you don't have a job chances are you going to have trouble taking care of the basics such as food, heat, utility bills etc. How are they going to afford the added cost of Healthcare? Having said that how is the state going to justify fining these people if they don't cough up the money they may very well might not have?

All the more reason for universal Affordable health care. I would even have a "Means Test" involved which would ensure that even if you lost your job, you wouldn't lose your health care & therefore be a drag on the rest of us by using the hospital Emergency Room as your primary health provider, like so many are forced to do now.

Richard S. wrote:Having said that how is the state going to justify fining these people if they don't cough up the money they may very well might not have?

I see no justification for ANY penalty in that circumstance.

Pretty much my take on the subject. The runaway cost of health insurance has made many folks go without, so what does the state do???,make it mandatory. That makes about as much sense as taking coal out of the stove to get more heat. And then on top of it all they will penalize you for not having enough money to pay for the insurance. I find it interesting that runaway health insurance started to raise it's ugly head about the same time all the hospitals turn from non-profit to profit organizations. Do you think this could be just another example of corp. greed??!!!

When I lost my job in Oct '08, I also lost my family healthcare Ins, dental Ins, Life Ins.....
'Cobra' was too expensive to purchase.
We signed up for a health Ins program from the State(NJ) 2 months ago (3 month waiting period b4 you can sign up), but haven't heard anything back from them. They are probably swamped with new applications from all the unimployed.
Thank God my family is healthy. Other than the occasional upset stomach or cold, we have been ok.
I would gladly accept a Nationwide Healthcare system. It would cost the government easily less than half of what they are currently GIVING away to Wall Street companies, banks, major Ins Comps, etc....

I think that it is pretty obvious that health care is one of President Obama's top priorities & he set a ONE Year goal in reforming it in his speech the other night. (similar to JFK's Moon Landing goal)
It's obvious that the burden of providing health insurance is a major factor in our personal & business financial problems in this country & a fact that the United States is the ONLY industrialized nation on earth to not have a universally available health care system!

Edit: It is a fallacy to think that such a system would be FREE/Welfare....... Just as federal employees pay for health care (to private providers like Blue Cross, etc) so would we all. It just wouldn't be tied to your employer & would be AVAILABLE & AFFORDABLE to all legal citizens.(Editorial Comment:the only one hurt by such a system would be the greedy pharmaceutical giants who are rich off the suffering of the rest of us)

Devil505 wrote:

Richard S. wrote:Having said that how is the state going to justify fining these people if they don't cough up the money they may very well might not have?

I see no justification for ANY penalty in that circumstance.

But the program mandates that people have healthcare which is the only way it can exist. To keep it alive everyone needs to contribute and if not the program fails unless the government makes up the difference.

Well the fines for not having health insurance are a joke. Couple hundred bucks a year vs. 600-1600 a MONTH for health ins.
Free Care is not free. The idea is that everyone has coverage, the state bill for the uninsured will go away. As of now,
you can go into any hospital in MA and be treated regardless if you can pay or not. The real move would be to refuse care
for the uninsured, that would get everyone on board very quickly. The insurance companies here a recording record profits,
every hospital is undergoing multi million dollar expansions, do the math, we are getting rolled hard.
Big surprise there.....
So, who is going to pay if you can not? You make your choices, you take your chances. The same whackos that scream
about gov involvement in health care, are the same ones who scream when they can not get the free care. Gov has
to get involved in an effective manner because the private market is saddled with public care, and it is not working. If it
is truly private, pay or take your chances, if it is going to be public, great, tax my butt, and lets get on it. You can not have
both.