{"id":509,"date":"2008-03-01T07:21:18","date_gmt":"2008-03-01T14:21:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/2008\/03\/01\/coverage-%e2%89%a0-care\/"},"modified":"2008-03-03T14:22:18","modified_gmt":"2008-03-03T21:22:18","slug":"coverage-%e2%89%a0-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/2008\/03\/coverage-%e2%89%a0-care\/","title":{"rendered":"marginal coverage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'\">Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has been boasting that his state&#8217;s health reform initiative has reduced the number of uninsured by half, with nearly 300,000 more people added to the health insurance rolls. What he doesn&#8217;t say is that four out of five of them are relying heavily on taxpayer subsidies for their coverage.<\/span><!--more--><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'\"> <o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'\">Of the 293,000 people newly insured in Massachusetts: <o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\">\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'\">160,000      earn less than $63,600 (for a family of four) and are enrolled in      taxpayer-subsidized plans. More than half of them pay no premiums, and      most others pay only a modest amount. <o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'\">70,000      people were added to the rolls through expansion of the state&#8217;s Medicaid      program. <o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'\">Only      63,000 &#8212; or about one in five &#8212; have purchased private insurance. <o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'\">Further, about 60,000 are being <a href=\"http:\/\/rs6.net\/tn.jsp?e=001X6jBVgcvuqDH1Dqedvy-21Wd2vWCvxYH3e99I0vSK4MgUJXqeU40wgGIR1mt3jPT4Xu5ObNediCN2QwTgt0pw2Z6Vc3LKAEkPQq7ChdEWVDkUq6dcbF7WAGhmlJeA4u7cfV8_Y7ggn00QB-1j1rkvLAgQeLmT3iA5gzQRnOUq80v6-5rNM5c7Jac6qLWCdQ3qBYS3xeqQb0vGB8J2vfXTlwnF7shmpTRT9ax1OmeZkU=\" shape=\"rect\">exempt<\/a> from the mandate that all citizens must buy coverage, showing how elusive the goal of universal coverage will be, even for a state that had a relatively low uninsured population to begin with. <o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'\">And costs are still an issue: <o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\">\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'\">Massachusetts      now estimates that its spending on the new program for the uninsured may      exceed its budget by nearly $150 million. <o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'\">The      penalty for not complying with the mandate is steep. Individuals who don&#8217;t      get insurance this year &#8212; or don&#8217;t get an exemption &#8212; will face a fine      of $912, four times last year&#8217;s penalty and scheduled to increase each      year. <o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'\">The      state &#8220;negotiated&#8221; with the health insurers participating in the      Commonwealth Connector to keep premium increases to about 5% this year.      But the insurers said in order to keep their prices down, they warned they      have to increase copayments and\/or deductibles and\/or cut benefits. Many      newly-insured say they have trouble finding primary care physicians who      will see them. <o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'\">And      to show how hard it will be to get to a point that everyone will be able      to get &#8220;coverage as good as members of Congress have,&#8221; in      Massachusetts, a gold-plated Blue Cross Blue Shield plan in the Connector      would cost a family of four about $23,000 a year. <o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'\">Further, the state is trying to figure out<\/span><\/strong><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'\"> what to do with those businesses that already are offering coverage but whose policies don&#8217;t comply with the higher standards set by the government. Should they be exempted, forced to pay for more expensive coverage, or be fined? <o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'\">Gov. Patrick and other governors were in town this week pleading with Congress to reverse the administration&#8217;s Medicaid and SCHIP reform <a href=\"http:\/\/rs6.net\/tn.jsp?e=001X6jBVgcvuqA2PUYHUnpcGd3mpMJOvCZWNN_iuh3xpv068n6xHcfggLMmuMJ4IWJVMM4N_YdKYrnoXlGmNwUNKcFvRvNoNZ2I94pDIl5u9iyl-2TMNwWuuV-HWgMCLk0d5J2a7EXqKFgK2QSl8clLH4iFGGNLy9lB\" shape=\"rect\">policies<\/a>, saying they would threaten their ability to expand or even sustain coverage. That&#8217;s because Massachusetts and other states rely heavily on federal payments for their expansion plans. The president wants them to focus on covering poor children and needy citizens first. <o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'\">Since the Bay State&#8217;s initiative is being seen by many as a model for the nation, it&#8217;s important to pay attention. There is clearly no Massachusetts miracle here. Other states should certainly be cautious before proceeding. <o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'\">*************<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; color: #336699\"><a href=\"http:\/\/rs6.net\/tn.jsp?e=001X6jBVgcvuqD1kQGj5EwiQ0fzFuLemvUh8VVHO8pLTV4_N4aNUr1xwAlYO8HbS53yijfnUlT20ET8Mmq-lEjGAjltaO-G8KiyirBWTN2QBp8=\">www.galen.org<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has been boasting that his state&#8217;s health reform initiative has reduced the number of uninsured by half, with nearly 300,000 more people added to the health insurance rolls. What he doesn&#8217;t say is that four out of five of them are relying heavily on taxpayer subsidies for their coverage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-509","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-health-insurance","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}