Mass Health Will Never Add Up
IF I were to ever become Governor of Massachusetts with a Republican majority (like that will happen in my lifetime), I would spend the first 100 days repealing destructive, math-challenged legislation and policies.
Personally, I’d start with the Healthcare Reform Act of 2006…
We are already well into the new fiscal year, and negotiations with the federal government continue over whether it will renew the waiver that facilitated the Commonwealth’s healthcare experiment in the first place. It might be useful to remember that no matter how conceptually interesting, even idea-based reforms face the logic of mathematics. They have to be affordable.
The problem is that we got universal healthcare (that people and businesses are forced to participate in), and the same kind of government hacks who forecast the Big Dig’s costs, told us we could afford to cover everyone.
I find it sad we had to implement it statewide before they took the time to add up the figures. I thought they were the smarts ones.
To remain cost-neutral to the federal government, we have to address this year’s shortfall of $153 million and a minimum shortfall of $184 million next year. In the long term, there are several things we can do to contain healthcare costs, including perhaps a hard look at certain benefits mandated in the law and increasing the transparency of cost and quality data useful to consumers.
Do you know what would happen to a corporation that was $153 million in the red this year and would be down an additional $31 million next?
The CEO would be fired and the business would either be restructured or liquidated. But as we’re dealing with government (and they’re playing with our money), they can continue to play games on a sinking ship. Healthcare reform isn’t the only thing bleeding Massachusetts dry, but it’s a significant piece of the puzzle.
For all those who turned a blind eye when the dysfunctional Canadian system was revealed, and in their brilliance assumed they could do it better in Massachusetts (thank you Mitt Romney), all they have done is proven again that socialized medicine doesn’t work.
There have to be minds out there that can come up with some way to address the rising medicine/insurance peripheral costs. They just happen to not live and work in Massachusetts.
July 29th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
Tort reform would be a start so doctors didn’t have to pay so much for insurance. Also lowering costs at medical centers, such as all these so-called not-for-profit hospitals that buy tons of land and buildings just to get rid of any “profit” by the end of the year. A major one in Des Moines comes to mind…. Some charges during a hospital stay are just ridiculous. My father had bypass surgery some years ago and our co-pay was over $50k that insurance didn’t cover. I remember an itemized bill that had regular old aspirin at $100 per pill. I understand pharmaceutical companies needing to regain costs for R&D, but there’s a LOT of reform to be made on simple things.
July 29th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
I forgot to include my point: The point is, get some of the actual costs under control and the bottom, and work your way up and it’ll be a long way towards making healthcare more fiscally viable.
July 29th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
Meanwhile, in the real world: