Private Health Insurance Market Reforms Needed Before Universal Health Coverage Can Be Achieved, Editorial States

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 22 May 2008 - 6:00 PDT

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The "returns" of Massachusetts' health insurance law "are rolling in, and the critics look prescient," a Wall Street Journal editorial states. The Journal writes, "First, the plan isn't 'universal' at all." There was "a reduction" in the number of uninsured state residents, but "it was not secured through the market reforms that [former Gov. Mitt Romney (R)] promised," the Journal states, adding, "Instead, Massachusetts also created a new state entitlement that is already trembling on the verge of bankruptcy inside of a year."

According to the Journal, "One lesson here is that while pledging 'universal' coverage is easy, the harder problem is paying for it." Romney's "fundamental mistake was focusing on making health insurance 'universal' without first reforming the private insurance market," the Journal writes. The Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector "that was supposed to link individuals to private insurance options has barely been used, as lower-income workers flood to the public options," the editorial states. "Meanwhile, low-cost private insurers continue to avoid the state because it imposes multiple and costly mandates on all policies," the Journal adds.

The Journal writes that the "Massachusetts nonmiracle ought to be a warning to Washington." Democratic presidential candidates Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and Barack Obama (Ill.) "are both proposing versions of RomneyCare on a national scale, with similar promises that covering everyone under a government plan will reduce costs," according to the Journal. However, the "real problem in health care is the way the tax code and third-party payment system distort incentives," the Journal writes. "That's where [presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.)] has been focusing his reform efforts -- because that really does have the potential to reduce costs while covering more of the uninsured -- and Republicans ought to follow his lead," the editorial states (Wall Street Journal, 5/21).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

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