Want a preview of ObamaCare in action? Check out the Massachusetts insurance market—which earlier this week entered a state of "market chaos" after Governor Deval Patrick denied a host of health insurance rate increases.
More from the Wall Street Journal:
This week it became impossible in Massachusetts for small businesses and individuals to buy health-care coverage after Governor Deval Patrick imposed price controls on premiums. Read on, because under ObamaCare this kind of political showdown will soon be coming to an insurance market near you.
The Massachusetts small-group market that serves about 800,000 residents shut down after Mr. Patrick kicked off his re-election campaign by presumptively rejecting about 90% of the premium increases the state's insurers had asked regulators to approve. Health costs have run off the rails since former GOP Governor Mitt Romney and Beacon Hill passed universal coverage in 2006, and Mr. Patrick now claims price controls are the sensible response to this ostensibly industry greed.
Yet all of the major Massachusetts insurers are nonprofits. Three of largest four — Blue Cross Blue Shield, Tufts Health Plan and Fallon Community Health — posted operating losses in 2009. In an emergency suit heard in Boston superior court yesterday, they argued that the arbitrary rate cap will result in another $100 million in collective losses this year and make it impossible to pay the anticipated cost of claims. It may even threaten the near-term solvency of some companies. So until the matter is resolved, the insurers have simply stopped selling new policies.
How do companies, even non-profits, manage to lose money when the citizens of MA are mandated to buy their product? Simple:
The Boston Globe reports, “Thousands of consumers are gaming Massachusetts’ 2006 health insurance law by buying insurance when they need to cover pricey medical care, such as fertility treatments and knee surgery, and then swiftly dropping coverage, a practice that insurance executives say is driving up costs for other people and small businesses.”
Predictably, costs in Massachusetts — always high — have only gone higher; the state now spends about 30 percent more per capita on health care than the rest of the nation. Predictably, the insurance regulations have only made insurance more expensive, as has been the case elsewhere; premiums in the individual market have been growing at a 30 percent annual rate. Predictably, the new health-care program has cost more than expected; spending grew by about 40 percent from 2006 to 2009.
It's funny how every government "entitlement program" ends up costing a lot more than the bean counters expected. First it was Social Security that needed a fix, aka a tax hike and increase in retirement age and then Medicare and Medicaid began busting holes in the federal and states' budgets. Now, it's Romneycare in MA,and ME,TN,KY and OR have all experienced budget busting experiences with socialized medicine, soon Obamacare will bring the phenomenon nationwide.
On a related note:
Dependency: The Democrats' reform bill had hardly become law before doctors and insurers began getting calls asking about free health care. The growing sense of entitlement is disheartening, to say the least.
'Where do we get the free ObamaCare, and how do I sign up for that?" That's what Carrie McLean, an agent for eHealthInsurance.com, told McClatchy newspapers she's been hearing from callers.
She said that the company's phone center has been "inundated by uninsured consumers who were hoping that the overhaul would translate into instant, affordable coverage."
Mitt Romney has the skills and smarts to be a very effective president. Unfortunately, his obstinancy in defending a deeply flawed and costly health care delivery system makes that increasingly unlikely.
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