Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Mass Ooops

Previously on IB: Massachusetts implements a new mandatory health insurance scheme. It is projected to cost $(fill in the blank), and to (eventually) cover everyone in the state.
Fast forward to reality...er, today:
Well why not? When "someone else" (i.e. the taxpayer) is picking up the tab, it's not too difficult to see the attraction. But that $147 mil is only the beginning; we have to wait for the second page of the article to learn that the true liability is over $600 million, more than 4 times the current shortfall.
And since the plan does absolutely nothing to control the cost of health care, expect those numbers to climb even (ever?) higher.
One bright spot: by treating the various states as independent laboratories for these experiments, we're able to contain the damage, yet still learn a little bit more about which kinds of plans will work, and which ones not so much.
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