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After all MA already has its version of forced health insurance purcahses in place for over year.
Could it be that since the inception of Romney Care in MA that health care costs have risen and insurance premiums have seen the highest rise in the nation?
Mitt Romney's Big-Government Health Care Plan - Forbes.com
Report: Mass. health premiums continue to rise - Boston.com
Massachusetts' Obama-like Reforms Increase Health Costs, Wait Times | Michael F. Cannon | Cato Institute: Commentary
Maybe I just answered my own question.
Could it be that since the inception of Romney Care in MA that health care costs have risen and insurance premiums have seen the highest rise in the nation?
Mitt Romney's Big-Government Health Care Plan - Forbes.com
The program has weighed down the state budget. In the last two years alone, spending on free and subsidized insurance plans for low-income citizens of the Bay State has doubled from $630 million in 2007 to an estimated $1.3 billion this year. "In tough times," as State Treasurer Timothy Cahill recently said, "[the program] just doesn't seem doable. We're all still waiting for the savings."
Report: Mass. health premiums continue to rise - Boston.com
A new study by the state Division of Health Care Finance and Policy found that average monthly premiums increased 12.2 percent from 2006 to 2008, although premiums grew more slowly in 2008 than in 2007.
The growth in the cost of premiums during this period was caused almost entirely by growth in medical expenses. Non-medical expenses like administrative costs grew more slowly.
Massachusetts residents are also spending more to stay well. Between 2006 and 2008, private spending per insured individual for health care in Massachusetts grew by 15.5 percent.
The study also found that premiums for employers with 50 or fewer insured workers grew faster than premiums for mid-size or large employers with 500 or more covered employees.
Massachusetts' Obama-like Reforms Increase Health Costs, Wait Times | Michael F. Cannon | Cato Institute: Commentary
Massachusetts reduced its uninsured population by two-thirds yet the cost would be considered staggering, had state officials not done such a good job of hiding it. Finally, Massachusetts shows where "ObamaCare" would ultimately lead: Officials are already laying the groundwork for government rationing.
Though initially popular, enthusiasm for the Massachusetts reforms may be on the wane.
The most sweeping provision in the Massachusetts reforms and the legislation before Congress is an "individual mandate" that makes health insurance compulsory. Massachusetts shows that such a mandate would oust millions from their low-cost health plans and force them to pay higher premiums.
The necessity of specifying what satisfies the mandate gives politicians enormous power to dictate the content of every American's health plan a power that health care providers inevitably capture and use to increase the required level of insurance.
In the three years since Massachusetts enacted its individual mandate, providers successfully lobbied to require 16 specific types of coverage under the mandate: prescription drugs, preventive care, diabetes self-management, drug-abuse treatment, early intervention for autism, hospice care, hormone replacement therapy, non-in-vitro fertility services, orthotics, prosthetics, telemedicine, testicular cancer, lay midwives, nurses, nurse practitioners and pediatric specialists.
Maybe I just answered my own question.