McMegan comments:
Sit down. You might want to have a tranquilizer handy. And a phone, to call a doctor. Remember, it generally starts with a numbness on the left arm . . .
Now that you are braced for the shock, here it is: comprehensive health care program costs much, much more than the government anticipated.Not shocked? You must be one of the rare few who knows that government health care plans tend to double their costs in short order, and then keep going.
That would be quite interesting if it was the full story:
The subsidized insurance program at the heart of the state's healthcare initiative is expected to roughly double in size and expense over the next three years - an unexpected level of growth that could cost state taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars or force the state to scale back its ambitions.
State projections obtained by the Globe show the program reaching 342,000 people and $1.35 billion in annual expenses by June 2011. Those figures would far outstrip the original plans for the Commonwealth Care program, largely because state officials underestimated the number of uninsured residents.
The problem is not, as Megan implied, that costs are running away under government control. It is that policymakers underestimated just how badly this program was needed by the citizens of this state. And then, this:
Even with federal backing, the state may not be able to afford the insurance initiative as designed, because the law did not make any attempt to trim wasteful health spending, said Alan Sager, a Boston University professor who specializes in healthcare costs.
Preventing government from "interfering" with the market was one of the things Romney desperately wanted as he prepared for his run at the presidency. To have attempted to control costs would have meant socialized Hillary care - Massachusetts will turn into France! - and we just couldn't have that, now could we?
We don't need to use Mass as our example. We can use France. Or Switzerland. Or Sweden. Or any of another dozen European nations. They successfully control costs and provide universal coverage. It can be done if it is done right.
The story in Mass isn't about how universal healthcare is doomed to fail; it is about how it is doomed to fail if you let people ideologically opposed to government design the program.
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