How Obamacare, The Prelude, Is Working In Massachusetts
C. MacLeod Fuller writes on AmericanThinker.com of a few key points from a WSJ article:
- Massachusetts' "insurance regulators have concluded the reason [that state's] premiums are the highest in the nation is the underlying cost of health care, not the supposed industry abuses" imagined by President Obama and Governor Patrick.- The unsurprising fact that because Massachusetts' universal healthcare mandate prohibits exclusion for pre-existing conditions, people simply "wait until they're about to incur major medical expenses before buying insurance and transfer the costs to everyone else."
- Once the medical emergency has passed, short-term enrollees drop their coverage - because they know they can demand "insurance" the next time they want it.
- Blue Cross Blue Shield reported "short-term customers ... ran up costs more than four times the average" and dropped coverage "within three months." Harvard Pilgrim's experience with such hit-and-run enrollees is that they remained with the plan "fewer than five months and on average incurred costs about 600% higher."
Of course, when their next medical stubbed toe happens, such short-term "purchasers" will return. Under ObamaCare, Massachusetts foreshadows the future of all 50 states - with a socialist-inspired financial vengeance.
After the Mass governor refused to allow rate hikes, three major for-profit insurers in the state simply stopped selling policies.
The point is apparently to force just that: the exit of insurance businesses, and their replacement with welfare programs.
And the idiocy runs deep and fast. As described here by CNN as a great thing, the health care bill requires employers with more than 50 on their rolls to provide lactation rooms.
Heh. Not only has that rule automatically put hundreds of thousands of jobs at risk - you think if I employed 52 that those two are safe? - you completely ignore all of American industry.
My employer has about 4000 people working - in about 300 buildings spread across ~300 square miles. And the idea that an infant belongs in the industrial environment is plus-ridiculous (yes, I think it's time to use Newspeak - might as well get used to it).
This might have an unintended consequence with a huge environmental impact: office work performed at home, with monitoring software checking your progress - and an instant, shocking switch to paying for performance, independent of race, creed, color, gender, etc.
Radwaste at April 10, 2010 7:23 AM
It's not about infants, or at least, not directly: Employers must provide "a place, other than a bathroom, that is shielded from view and free from intrusion from co-workers and the public, which may be used by an employee to express breast milk."
This is the epitomy of micromanagement and has no place in federal legislation. Employers who care about their employees will find solutions for personal issues like this - without legislation. Lousy employers will now put a chair in a cleaning closet, and still be lousy.
bradley13 at April 10, 2010 9:02 AM
How are the non-profit insurance companies doing in Massachusetts?
I think it's funny that Mitt Romney is now denoucing the recent HCR and acting as if he had nothing whatsoever to do with Romneycare.
JoJo at April 10, 2010 9:50 AM
Employers must provide "a place, other than a bathroom, that is shielded from view and free from intrusion from co-workers and the public, which may be used by an employee to express breast milk."
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And there is one more glass ceiling laid above the women who do work hard.
I wonder how many employers have not hired women because of stupid legislation just like that.
One of my tenants is a manager at a chilis in Georgia, and she's had the following to say:
Hiring a woman is almost always more trouble than its worth. The ones who are great, are really fantastic...but if they're not, there seems to be almost no middle ground. Hiring them in my experience, is either great...or a REGRET.
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Ironically, Obamacare is only going to make things worse.
Robert at April 10, 2010 6:13 PM
What Robert said. All the mommy-centric workplace concessions make it hell on earth for the rest of us.
You can have it all, just not all at once. Get over it.
Ann at April 12, 2010 8:16 AM
Unlike the Feds, the insurers can't just print more money. Everybody will get paid, but the money won't be worth much.
MarkD at April 12, 2010 12:20 PM
For what it's worth, MA had insanely high insurance prices even before the law was passed.
NicoleK at April 12, 2010 12:47 PM
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