Ill-conceived
I found it astonishing that Massachusetts would pass a law requiring people to have health-insurance and imposing substantial fines on those who don't comply, while giving hardly any thought to whether the people affected by this law could afford the premiums they would be charged. As far as I could determine there was a single study that claimed the insurance premium would be less than $200 a month. As far as I know, no effort was made to determine whether the people who would be required to buy the insurance had $200 a month in discretionary income. Of course, the real price appears to be higher-- at the moment it seems to be $380 per month, mostly because the state insists that any plan people buy include benefits such as drug coverage. Of course, many of the people who would be required to buy insurance under this law can't afford that, which will result in them either having to pay the fine for non-compliance or go into debt to pay the required premium. Or, if they're smart, they'll move to New Hampshire.
Perhaps even more disturbing is how many states have rushed to copy the Massachusetts plan, even before it has actually been implemented. The problems that can so easily be ignored when passing a law can't so easily be ignored once the law is in force, but by the time the problems with the Massachusetts law become widely known it is likely that they will affect many more states than Massachusetts, including the state where I currently reside, California.
Even the supporters of the Massachusetts law are belatedly realizing its flaws-- one wonders why they didn't think about this a bit more before proposing the law. I suspect in part it was passed so rapidly because Mitt Romney wanted to be able to put it on his CV during his presidential bid, while hoping that the problems don't become apparent until he is safely in the White House.
Perhaps even more disturbing is how many states have rushed to copy the Massachusetts plan, even before it has actually been implemented. The problems that can so easily be ignored when passing a law can't so easily be ignored once the law is in force, but by the time the problems with the Massachusetts law become widely known it is likely that they will affect many more states than Massachusetts, including the state where I currently reside, California.
Even the supporters of the Massachusetts law are belatedly realizing its flaws-- one wonders why they didn't think about this a bit more before proposing the law. I suspect in part it was passed so rapidly because Mitt Romney wanted to be able to put it on his CV during his presidential bid, while hoping that the problems don't become apparent until he is safely in the White House.