MA. Healthcare

I’m all about universal healthcare. I think we’ve needed it for a long time. I also believe that the states should handle it based on citizen’s needs. So, in my opinion Massachusetts is doing a good thing. If you haven’t heard (where the hell have you been?) you can check out the PDF summary here.

The legislation calls for any employer with more than 10 fulltime employees to provide affordable benefits. They would face a penalty for not doing this.

Employers who don’t make a “fair and reasonable â€ contribution toward employee health insurance premiums will be required to make a per-worker fair share contribution. â€ The contribution will be calculated to represent the cost of free care used by the employees of non-contributing employers, but will be capped at $295 per employee.

I’m wondering if these employers would face fines and penalties for something I like to call “Wal-Marting the law”. Meaning, what happens if they cut all of their employees down to part time?

I was curious at to the role insurance companies will play in making this affordable to the average person, considering the high cost of premiums most people face when buying their own health coverage. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like the insurance companies will be brought to heel with their outrageous rates, regardless of what the PDF says.

Merging the small- and non- group markets will stabilize the non-group market, and lower rates by 24% for individuals

But what’s to stop them from raising their rates by 50% only to take from that the 24% savings? They would, in essence, be making a profit off those that couldn’t afford the insurance to begin with. This, of course, only affects individuals who weren’t eligible for government programs to begin with._[1] I don’t see in the document I’m looking at if this is even addressed.

Of course, these issues may be addressed in the future, if they’re not already being addressed. I think this is an excellent example of what other states should be doing for their own citizens. It’s too bad, though, that the insurance companies are going to make out like bandits on this issue. I’m a firm believer that most insurance companies are evil and greedy. And any way that they can find to make more money from a bad situation is good with them.

_{[1] And those that are forced to buy their own insurance because their employer cut them down to part time.}