Universal coverage does not mean universal care.
- Chapter 58, Massachusetts' universal health care plan, was signed into law by Mitt Romney in April 2006. It is seen as a model for nationwide healthcare reform.
- Under Massachusetts law, any individual earning at least $32,508 a year must purchase health insurance. Those who earn less are eligible for subsidized coverage.
- Residents who obtain no coverage incur a state-imposed fine of approximately $1000/year.
- Physicians who care for patients on state-subsidized plans lose money. "In effect," one physician says, "I hand them $20 when they walk out the door."
- Chapter 58 created an estimated 400,000 newly insured residents in less than two years and Massachusetts' glut of doctors quickly became a critical shortage.
- More than 41% of primary care practices in the state did not accept new patients in 2008, up from 28% in 2006
- Wait times for new-patient appointments rose from four weeks in 2006 to nearly eight weeks in 2008 for general internal medicine doctors. (Nationally, average wait time is slightly under three weeks.)
- Universal coverage has resulted in universal price hikes. By some estimates, costs of covering the state's newly insured are rising by almost 10% each year
- Overall healthcare spending on state-sponsored insurance has risen 23% since 2006.
- "If the problem is cost, reform has failed. Costs have gone up, not down. Since Massachusetts reformed their system, health costs have followed the same path as the U.S. as a whole: a steady upward climb, faster than inflation or wages."
- Doctors are miserable. "Anyone who can is leaving the state"
"If universal care in Massachusetts cannot stem the tide of rising costs [or deliver the care people need] is there hope for similar plans on the national stage?" We will soon know the painful answer to that question if the Democrats manage to pass a health care bill.
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