Editorials, Opinion Pieces Discuss Massachusetts Health Care Bill

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Article Date: 14 Apr 2006 - 20:00 PDT

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Several newspapers recently published editorials and opinion pieces on a bill passed last week by the Massachusetts Legislature that would require all uninsured state residents to purchase health insurance by July 1, 2007, and require employers in the state with 11 or more employees to provide coverage for workers. Summaries appear below.

Editorials

• Boston Globe: Gov. Mitt Romney (R) "plans a ceremony ... today to celebrate his signing of the bill to expand health insurance to 95% of the people in Massachusetts," and he "should not spoil the event by vetoing or seeking to change any portion of this historic compromise," according to a Globe editorial. The editorial adds, "Unambiguous support by the governor today would solidify a consensus for full implementation of this overdue law" (Boston Globe, 4/12).
  


• Boston Herald: The Massachusetts bill "is indeed a trailblazing concept," but "turning a concept into legislation (all 145 pages of it) and then into a functioning system that will do what it is intended to do is something else entirely," a Herald editorial states. The editorial concludes, "Not to rain too heavily on the governor's parade today, but the tough job of making health care coverage available for all is just beginning" (Boston Herald, 4/12).
  


• Denver Post: "The Massachusetts plan builds on both its already high insurance coverage and some programs already in place in the state and so may be hard to export to other states such as Colorado," a Post editorial states, adding, "But at a time when health care has become one of America's most pressing domestic problems, it is a bold step that is sure to attract nationwide attention." The editorial concludes, "Health expenses are soaring across the United States, and, ultimately, we favor a national solution to the insurance dilemma. But we admire Romney and Massachusetts for seeing the value of action at the state level" (Denver Post, 4/12).
  


• Eugene Register-Guard: "Oregon, with tens of thousands more uninsured residents than Massachusetts, doesn't lack incentives to explore a similar strategy," but "Oregonians would do well to let Massachusetts 'show them the money' before trying to replicate the Massachusetts plan here," according to a Register-Guard editorial. "The Massachusetts breakthrough is welcome news" but remains "an interim step," the editorial states, adding, "It serves as a reminder that the U.S. health care system remains in need of a top-to-bottom overhaul" (Eugene Register-Guard, 4/10).
  


• Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "The decision by the Massachusetts Legislature and governor requiring everyone to buy medical insurance has received national attention and praise for its boldness," but a "plan every bit as daring and potentially even more sweeping has been taking shape in Wisconsin for more than a year," according to a Journal Sentinel editorial. The editorial adds, "While Wisconsin should not rule out adopting a version of the Massachusetts plan, we think the smartest approach is to tailor the solution to our state's particular needs, characteristics and culture" (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 4/11).
  


• Wall Street Journal: "Give Mr. Romney credit as a rare Republican willing at least to discuss health care," but the Massachusetts bill "is far from the market-based approach" he claimed in a Tuesday opinion piece, according to a Journal editorial. "The real health insurance problem today isn't lack of coverage per se; it's the inability of insurers to offer affordable policies in many states," the editorial states, adding, "By making a fetish of 'universal' coverage, Romney has bought into a bidding war that Democrats and advocates of socialized medicine are bound to win in the end" (Wall Street Journal, 4/12).
  


• Winston-Salem Journal: "Suddenly, the nation's health care crisis doesn't look unsolvable," as Massachusetts "has created a template for assuring almost universal health care coverage," a Journal editorial states, adding, "North Carolina, other states and the federal government should be considering the plan as a means for insuring all Americans." The editorial states, "It would be nice if politicians in Washington, Raleigh and every other state capital could learn" from the Massachusetts bill, adding, "It would make us all that much healthier" (Winston-Salem Journal, 4/12).
  

Opinion Pieces

• Rachelle Cohen, Boston Herald: As the governor prepares to sign the legislation, "it behooves us locals to pull back the curtain on our wizard just a little and reveal the real Mitt Romney," Cohen, editor of the Herald editorial pages, writes in a Herald opinion piece. Cohen says that in reality, "civic leaders like Peter Meade of Blue Cross and Jack Connors, chairman of the Partners board, had a helluva lot more to do with passage of the health care bill by breaking the legislative logjam than Romney ever did" (Cohen, Boston Herald, 4/12).
  


• Kevin Rothstein, Boston Herald: Some critics of Romney are saying that the bill, which has positioned him "in the national health care limelight, ... is more of the state Legislature's making than the governor's," columnist Rothstein writes in a Herald opinion piece. He says the bill "has left some critics in Massachusetts in the shadows and fuming that the governor's presidential aspirations are crowding them out" (Rothstein, Boston Herald, 4/12).
  


• Cindy Richards, Chicago Sun-Times: "State law already requires us to buy auto insurance and mortgage companies require homeowners to buy homeowners' insurance, so why shouldn't states require citizens to buy health insurance," columnist Richards asks in a Sun-Times opinion piece, adding, "especially since Massachusetts also promises to make it accessible and affordable?" Richards continues, "In a world where fewer and fewer workers are employed full time, ... an employer-based system for providing health insurance no longer makes sense for America" (Richards, Chicago Sun-Times, 4/12).
  


• Robert Reich, APM's "Marketplace Morning Report": Massachusetts has developed an "almost universal health care plan that could work in other states too," Reich, former Department of Labor secretary in the Clinton administration and a professor at Brandeis University, says in a commentary on "Marketplace Morning Report." According to Reich, Massachusetts' bill does "three simple things that every other state could do just as well": it uses funds currently assisting hospital emergency departments in treating the uninsured; creates purchasing pools to share risk and generate economies of scale; and requires individuals currently choosing not to purchase insurance to do so. "I'm not saying that as Massachusetts goes, so goes the nation," Reich says, while adding that even states more conservative than Massachusetts "might be attracted by a plan that insures nearly everyone without spending a taxpayer dime" (Reich, "Marketplace Morning Report," APM, 4/12).
  
  The complete segment will be available online in RealPlayer after the broadcast.
  


• David Leonhardt, New York Times: "I know that a lot of fans of a government-run system will find the Massachusetts solution complicated and inefficient. But the reality is that a national system will remain a fantasy as long as most employers offer health insurance," columnist Leonhardt writes in a Times opinion piece. He says that the Massachusetts plan "breaks free of the usual ideological shackles" by addressing the two main reasons why some U.S. residents are uninsured: "One, many people just cannot afford it. Two, some who can afford it imagine that they will not need it -- and then stick the rest of us with the bill when they end up in the emergency room" (Leonhardt, New York Times, 4/12).
  

"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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