Massachusetts Takes a Step Back From Health Care for All Eliminating Health Care Coverage for 30,000

[Better Believe It]

Massachusetts Takes a Step Back From Health Care for All
By ABBY GOODNOUGH
New York Times
July 14, 2009

BOSTON — The new state budget in Massachusetts eliminates health care coverage for some 30,000 legal immigrants to help close a growing deficit, reversing progress toward universal coverage just as Congress looks to the state as a model for overhauling the nation’s health care system.

Critics of the cut, which would save an estimated $130 million, say it unfairly targets taxpaying residents and threatens the state’s health care experiment at a critical time. “It either sends the message that health care reform cannot be done, period,” said Eva Millona, executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, “or it opens the door to doing it halfway and excluding immigrants from the process.”

Gov. Deval Patrick has proposed restoring $70 million to the program, which would partly restore the immigrants’ coverage. But legislative leaders have balked, saying vital programs for other groups would have to be cut as a result. The cut, which would affect only nondisabled adults from 18 to 65 years old, would take effect in August unless the legislature approves Mr. Patrick’s proposal.

.... the recession has made an already difficult experiment far more challenging. Enrollment in Commonwealth Care has risen sharply in recent months, to 181,000, as more people have lost jobs. That increase, combined with plummeting state revenues, made it impossible to maintain last year’s level of service, said Cyndi Roy, a spokeswoman for the state’s Executive Office for Administration and Finance.

In addition to dropping the immigrant insurance program, Commonwealth Care will save an estimated $63 million by no longer automatically enrolling low-income residents who fail to enroll themselves.

Under the 1996 federal law that overhauled the nation’s welfare system, the 30,000 immigrants affected by the loss of coverage also do not qualify for Medicaid or other federal aid.

Please read the complete article at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/15/us/15insure.html?_r=1&ref=us

Laura Porto, 58, a legal immigrant from Venezuela, said that losing her state-subsidized health coverage would force her to stop treatment for bipolar disorder.

[valerief]

1. I hope we taxpayers are not paying for health care for the state legislators! nt

[Freddie Stubbs]

14. Only the ones who are US citizens

[Oregone]

2. Good model. Expand this to the rest of the country

[avaistheone1]

15. Massachusetts Is No Model for National Health Care Reform

WASHINGTON - February 20 - The Massachusetts health care system, widely regarded as an example of how to provide universal coverage and keep costs low, is in fact faltering badly and should not be held up as a national model for reform, according to a study released this week by Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) and Public Citizen.

The study comes at a time when the health insurance industry is reportedly weighing in heavily in secret talks on Capitol Hill in favor of an individual mandate, a legal obligation requiring persons to have or to buy health insurance. The insurance industry's position was described in today's New York Times.

However, such mandates - which have been a cornerstone of the Massachusetts health reform - have failed to assure universal coverage, the new study says. For example, the state's most recent figures show that it had to exempt 79,000 residents from the mandate in 2007 because they could not afford to buy insurance.

The Massachusetts plan has also failed to make health care sufficiently affordable or to control costs, the report says.

The groups urged Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) to reject his home state's approach and, instead, introduce Senate legislation crafted after the House's United States National Health Care Act, H.R. 676, which would implement single-payer financing of health care while maintaining the private delivery system. The two groups also released a letter to Kennedy signed by approximately 500 Massachusetts physicians and health professionals urging the senator to embrace single-payer reform.

"Massachusetts physicians have the unique opportunity to observe the effects of this reform on patients every day," said Dr. Rachel Nardin , president of the Massachusetts chapter of PNHP and lead author of the study. "The nearly 500 doctors who have signed the open letter to Sen. Kennedy see that the reform is deeply flawed."

PNHP's study of the Massachusetts model found that the state's 2006 reforms, instead of reducing costs, have been more expensive than expected. The budget overruns have forced the state to siphon about $150 million from safety-net providers such as public hospitals and community clinics.

Many low-income residents, who used to receive completely free care, now face co-payments, premiums and deductibles under the new system - financial burdens that prevent many of them from receiving necessary medical treatment. Since the state's reforms passed, premiums under the state insurance program have increased 9.4 percent. The study found that if a middle-income person on the cheapest available state plan got sick, he or she could end up paying $9,872 in premiums, deductibles and co-insurance for the year.

Many residents remain uninsured or have inadequate insurance.

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/02/20-6

[ipaint]

3. A glimpse into the future.

If we are going to pick a model for overhauling health care couldn't we pick something that actually works.

That's right the insurance companies said no.

[dflprincess]

6. Not to worry

"the market" will take care of everything. :sarcasm:

As long as I've been involved with the Democratic party (30+years) I can't believe that I was naive enough to even hope Congress might actually do something so we'd have access to health care like the citizens of civilized countries.

[Doctor_J]

4. Isn't this WillardCare?

Everyone knew this would FAIL eventually. It depends on insurance companies.

[wroberts189]

9. There is another name "Romneycare" .. a pub behind it of course it will fail. nt

[Thrill]

5. Damn how bad is this going to hurt Deval in re-election?

[chill_wind]

7. The experience of a number of other states:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=8528296&mesg_id=8529653

[wroberts189]

8. but ..but ..the insurance companies said MANDATORY coverage would allow everyone to afford it.

/sarcasm off

[Hello_Kitty]

11. Not just the insurance companies. There's plenty of folks right here on DU who believe it too!

Yep, just as soon as we get those uninsured deadbeat "Health Care Queens" into mandatory policies everyone's premiums will magically be affordable. :sarcasm:

[wroberts189]

16. another ..When they gutted bankruptcy protection...cc companies said interest rates would go down.

But they did not and now are skyrocketing.

Same thing with mandated coverage in Mass ..instead of going down it went up as now the insurance companies had a captive market.


God America .. stop being such fools.

[Hello_Kitty]

17. Oh oh! I have another one!

When TX passed tort reform for medical malpractice, they assured everyone that malpractice insurance rates would go down and so would health care costs. Guess what really happened?

[wroberts189]

18. The price went up.. make your questions harder please :)

[eridani]

10. That's what happens with mandated insurance purchase that leaves private insurance in place

This is what the Senate is proposing, and it sucks. The House bill might be workable.

[ibegurpard]

20. Indeed

We should be STARTING with taxpayer-funded single payer and evaluating other country's systems to see what doesn't work and go from there.
My only problem is what to do with people who work in the insurance industry who would become unemployed.

[eridani]

21. That really isn't going to be too much of a problem

If the financing of health care is a public good, then public oversight can insure that the claims processing jobs that remain will never be sent out of the country.

Once the burden of being robbed by expensive middlemen is removed from private and public employers, they will be able to afford to hire many more employees. The CA Nurses Study estimates that single payer could provide 2.6 million new jobs this way.

There is a growing shortage of nurses, and we should be funding more training in this field.

Private insurance will not disappear. All countries with universal health care have regulated private insurers who provide plans to fund extras not provided by the basic system. It will be like private life insurance is now, a highly competitive business which does not replace or deplete funds from Social Security survivors' benefits, but provides add-ons that people are willing to pay extra for.

With health care not tied to a job, people will be free to start their own businesses, or to retire early and take on second careers or community work. This will free up spaces on their former employer’s career ladder.

[eridani]

22. That really isn't going to be too much of a problem

If the financing of health care is a public good, then public oversight can insure that the claims processing jobs that remain will never be sent out of the country.

Once the burden of being robbed by expensive middlemen is removed from private and public employers, they will be able to afford to hire many more employees. The CA Nurses Study estimates that single payer could provide 2.6 million new jobs this way.

There is a growing shortage of nurses, and we should be funding more training in this field.

Private insurance will not disappear. All countries with universal health care have regulated private insurers who provide plans to fund extras not provided by the basic system. It will be like private life insurance is now, a highly competitive business which does not replace or deplete funds from Social Security survivors' benefits, but provides add-ons that people are willing to pay extra for.

With health care not tied to a job, people will be free to start their own businesses, or to retire early and take on second careers or community work. This will free up spaces on their former employer’s career ladder.

[mp9200]

12. What a screwed up country we live in

Make me sick sometimes.

[chill_wind]

13. kicking

[slipslidingaway]

19. kick n/t