Daily Policy Digest
Health Issues
August 6, 2009
ON HEALTH REFORM, MASSACHUSETTS IS THE MODEL
If Massachusetts were covering the uninsured for less than $800 a pop, as former Gov. Mitt Romney suggests in his op-ed, "Mr. President, What's the Rush?" July 30, 2009, in USA Today, then the health reforms he signed in 2006 would truly be a model for the nation. Yet data from the very watchdog organization Romney cites (the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation) indicate something different, says the Cato Institute.
For example:
- The Massachusetts reforms cost more than five times what Romney claims, because the state pushed more than 80 percent of the cost off-budget, and onto private individuals and the federal government.
- In fact, "RomneyCare" covers a family of four at a cost of at least $27,000 -- more than twice the average cost of employer-sponsored coverage ($12,680).
Romney is correct that President Barack Obama has the wrong prescription for health reform. But that's because Obama's approach is Romney's approach, says Cato:
- Like Romney, Obama would have government force people to purchase health insurance; control the content, terms, and price of "private" health insurance policies; expand Medicaid; and create new government subsidies and bureaucracies.
- Like Romney, Obama would push most of the cost off-budget by imposing mandates on states and private individuals -- which constitutes a huge tax increase on the middle class.
ObamaCare, like RomneyCare, is socialized medicine with a private facade, says Cato.
Source: Cato Institute, "On Health Reform, Massachusetts Is the Model," Cato Institute on facebook, August 5, 2009.
For text:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/note.php?note_id=117860376919
For Romney text:
http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/07/mr-president-whats-the-rush.html
For MTF text:
http://www.masstaxpayers.org/files/Health%20care-NT.pdf
For more on Health Issues:
http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_Category=16