Editorials, Opinion Pieces Address Massachusetts Health Care Bill

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Article Date: 12 Apr 2006 - 21:00 PDT

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Several editorials and opinion pieces were published recently addressing the recently approved Massachusetts bill that would require all uninsured residents to purchase health care coverage by July 1, 2007, and employers with 11 or more workers to provider coverage for employees or pay a penalty. Summaries appear below.

Editorials

• Akron Beacon Journal: "Massachusetts has taken a bold approach to a critical national issue," and its plan is "noteworthy for its substance and for collaboration and compromise as well," a Beacon Journal editorial says. It continues, "It offers proof that coalition-building still is possible," concluding, "In substance and approach, Massachusetts has raised the bar in the health care debate" (Akron Beacon Journal, 4/10).
  


• Boston Globe: The state's plan "ventures into uncharted policy territory and will require adjustments and probably more money, but it is a proud statement that government can improve the lives of its people," a Globe editorial says. It concludes, "[I]n an age of straitened expectations and stingy government, Massachusetts should be proud that it is about to embark on an initiative to extend the benefits of health care to the vast majority of its population" (Boston Globe, 4/9).
  


• Boston Herald: "As lawmakers celebrate this big win on health care reform, a ballot question that would mandate universal coverage through a series of big-government solutions still simmers on a back burner. It's time to turn off the flame," a Herald editorial says (Boston Herald, 4/10).
  


• Chicago Tribune: "The Massachusetts experiment, which took years of political arm-twisting, is compelling," and the plan "attack[s] the problem of the uninsured by treating patients the same way it does cars," a Tribune editorial states. It concludes, "So Massachusetts becomes the nation's crucible to test a new approach to the health insurance gap that baffles Washington. Bravo, Bay Staters. We'll watch and we'll hope" (Chicago Tribune, 4/9).
  


• Long Island Newsday: "Will it work? Clearly, it's a serious experiment. Some experts worry it is underfunded or unwieldy," a Newsday editorial states, adding, "But it's time to do more about the nation's 50 million uninsured than attack from behind ideological lines." It concludes, "Massachusetts is leading. New York, which has only dared go so far, shouldn't be afraid to follow" (Long Island Newsday, 4/9).
  


• Los Angeles Times: "The plan is ambitious and inventive. But there could be problems," because "the state is betting that it will not cost much more than the present system" and "the proposal is not necessarily designed to addresses the biggest elephant in the operating room: health care costs," a Times editorial states. It adds, "Part of what Massachusetts' experiments shows is that there are no easy solutions to the U.S. health care crisis. Solving it will require a more sober discussion at the state and federal levels" (Los Angeles Times, 4/10).
  


• Newark Star-Ledger: "Although still a work in progress, the principal involved -- putting the burden on government, employers and citizens alike -- deserves to be studied by other states," a Star-Ledger editorial says, adding, "[I]t's not likely that other states can immediately ape Massachusetts' plan. But it offers a reasonable framework to work out a vexing problem" (Newark Star-Ledger, 4/8).
  


• Philadelphia Inquirer: The initiative's "basic premise is intriguing, ... that individuals have a legal duty to provide for their own health care, just as they must provide liability coverage to drive," an Inquirer editorial says, adding, "Bay State leaders may not have the best answer, but their brand of out-of-the-box thinking is needed to provide health insurance for the 45 million Americans going without." It concludes, "In concept, their health care plan beats anything floated so far in Washington" (Philadelphia Inquirer, 4/10).
  


• San Jose Mercury News: "If the United States is going to solve its health care crisis, then it is going to need individual states to serve as laboratories for seeking cures," a Mercury News editorial states. It adds, "If a Republican governor in a state with such a prominent liberal constituency can find common ground on the issue, surely California can make progress toward reducing the number of its six million residents without health care coverage" (San Jose Mercury News, 4/10).
  


• USA Today: "Massachusetts' ambitious plan is a worthy experiment that could serve as a model to other states -- and, perhaps in less partisan and more courageous times, for Washington," a USA Today editorial says. It continues, "Ultimately, a national solution is necessary. By testing ideas now, states might eventually point Washington in a more productive direction" (USA Today, 4/10).
  

Opinion Pieces

• Edwin Amenta, Boston Globe: Edwin Amenta, professor of sociology at University of California-Irvine and New York University, asks in a Globe opinion piece, "Now that the Massachusetts Legislature has passed a law requiring health insurance, is this possible for the United States?" He says, "It is worth asking because innovative state action was the harbinger for America's most successful social reform -- Social Security." However, he adds that, while "state-level action does matter in providing models and leaders," universal health coverage will have to involve the federal government (Amenta, Boston Globe, 4/8).
  


• Robert Kuttner, Boston Globe: Universal health care advocates "feel they finally have their nose under the right tent" with the passage of Massachusetts' health care plan, but is it the "right tent?" Robert Kuttner, co-editor of The American Prospect, writes in a Globe opinion piece. Kuttner adds that it "remains to be seen how [the plan] will work in practice." Whether "the camel's nose leads to true high-quality universal coverage or to more out-of-pocket payments and more families going without care, depends on how the people hold the politicians accountable" (Kuttner, Boston Globe, 4/8).
  


• Ronald Brownstein, Los Angeles Times: "At a time when Washington is locked in partisan warfare on almost every front and has done little to reverse the declining access to health insurance nationwide" the Massachusetts bill shows "brilliant political balancing," Brownstein writes in a Times opinion piece. He adds that the "package advances many ideas dear to conservatives ... [but] advances just as many priorities of the left." Brownstein also says that "[m]uch could still go wrong" with the plan, but the plan "has created a structure supple enough to respond to the challenges that emerge if the state's future political leaders show the flexibility demonstrated by Romney and state Democratic leaders" (Brownstein, Los Angeles Times, 4/9).
  


• Judy Dugan/Jamie Court, Los Angeles Times: While many individuals have praised the Massachusetts plan as a "model for national health insurance ... [i]t's not, and certainly not for California," Dugan and Court of Santa Monica-based Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights write in a Times opinion piece. Dugan and Court write, "If California wants genuine universal health insurance, it is going to have to do the hard work of restraining the health care system's waste, inefficiency and profiteering. But that would entail angering interest groups that finance politicians' elections. The uninsured and underinsured don't attend fund raisers or make political contributions" (Dugan/Court, Los Angeles Times, 4/8).
  


• Sally Pipes, USA Today: "The end results of Massachusetts' 'innovative' plan will be a total government takeover of health care," Pipes, president of the Pacific Research Institute, writes in a USA Today opinion piece. Pipes says, "Individual mandates lead to groaning about price. At the same times, the true costs to the state will explode. This will build pressure for price controls." She concludes, "Having already erected a government apparatus to impose price controls, regulation and rationing, the state will again come to the rescue of those it stranded by imposing
  
  "Reprinted with 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 . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.
  
  
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  Jenny Martin. "Editorials, Opinion Pieces Address Massachusetts Health Care Bill." Medical News Today. MediLexicon, Intl., 12 Apr. 2006. Web.
  14 Feb. 2012. <http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/41385.php>

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