Editorials Address New Massachusetts Health Insurance Law

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Article Date: 26 Apr 2006 - 22:00 PDT

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Several newspapers recently published editorials on a law signed by Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) that will require all uninsured state residents to purchase health insurance by July 1, 2007, and will require employers in the state with 11 or more employees to provide coverage for workers. Summaries appear below.

• Omaha World-Herald: Some "aspects of the plan deserve thoughtful consideration by other states and the federal government," but the cost of the Massachusetts law raises concerns, a World-Herald editorial states. "Americans want health care for all, freedom to choose their care and cost controls," the editorial states, adding, "Any two are doable, but not all three." The editorial concludes, "If Massachusetts somehow evades the day of reckoning when the cost of Romney's plan comes home to roost, three cheers might be called for. But don't count on it" (Omaha World-Herald, 4/20).
  
  
• Philadelphia Inquirer: The Massachusetts law "is already a success by one calculation" because "it has raised the bar for what is possible -- to take a holistic approach to health care," an Inquirer editorial states. According to the editorial, "In a nation with 46 million citizens without health insurance, with a staggering public tab for charity care, and with runaway medical costs, generally, what Massachusetts is doing is a medical breakthrough of a different kind." The editorial states, "Finding the perfect patch for the health care safety net is proving as elusive as cures for many cancers," adding, "The good news is that the national conversation on health care reform is showing remarkable life signs" (Philadelphia Inquirer, 4/23).
  
  
• Wall Street Journal: Romney "claims his plan is market-based," but the Massachusetts law "does little to reform the regulations that have made coverage in his state among the most expensive in the country," a Journal editorial states. The law maintains guaranteed issue -- a state regulation that requires health insurers to sell policies to all state residents, regardless of whether they have pre-existing medical conditions -- and, although "a new insurance regulation board could in theory do something about other costly mandates, it's not likely to do much in practice," according to the editorial. The editorial states that "there's a far simpler way to begin tackling the problem of the uninsured than the Massachusetts path:" allow the market to "start operating as it should" (Wall Street Journal, 4/24).
  

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