The Center for American Progress Action Fund (a mainstream Democratic think tank run by lobbyist and former Clinton Chief of Staff John Podesta) has prepared health care fact sheets for every state. Here is what they say about the Bay State:
In Massachusetts, 430 people are losing their health care every day during this economic crisis. Nationally, 14,000 people are losing their health insurance every day. … The average family premium in Massachusetts costs $500 more because our broken health care system fails to cover everyone. Nationally, the average family premium costs $1,100 more. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts holds 50 percent of the market. They control 67 percent of the market together with one other company, Tufts Health Plan. Half of all people filing for home foreclosure nationwide in 2008 cited medical problems as a cause. Health care costs for small businesses have grown by 30 percent since 2000, and our manufacturers spend more per hour on health care than manufacturers in Canada, Japan,
and the United Kingdom combined. Health system modernization can save $600 billion over 10 years.
They attack the Coburn-Burr health proposal — the so-called “Patient’s Choice Act” (“The GOP Can Stop ObamaCare ” — Karl Rove) — after the flip.
The Coburn-Burr alternative unravels the employer-based system and keeps insurance companies in charge. The Coburn-Burr plan does not provide sufficient protection for patients against abusive insurance company practices such as denying coverage to people with pre-
existing conditions. Insurance companies today use the flimsiest reasons to deny people coverage. For example, a woman in Los Angeles was denied coverage for her breast cancer because
she failed to disclose that she had visited a dermatologist. Under the Coburn plan, insurance companies could continue this practice-called
“rescission”-which “has left thousands of Americans burdened with costly medical
bills despite paying insurance premiums,” according to the Los Angeles Times.The Coburn-Burr plan would also unravel the employer-based system and replace it with
an insufficient tax credit that doesn’t even cover half of the average family’s medical costs.
The $5,700 per-family tax subsidy proposed in the Coburn plan is less than half of the
$12,680 that the average American family paid for health care in 2008.
Discuss
One Comment . Comments are closed.You're missing the big picture, Ernie. That's unlike you.
This time a year from now---starvation may be the big issue on people's minds.
You can scoff all you want. Take a good look around! Look at California. California is one year ahead of Massachusetts. Tax revenues plummeting, people abandonning homes, hacks ready to loot the remainder of the "rainy day" fund and you and others are fiddling while Rome burns. This Christmas should be a real dandy. With this "Global Warming" the average daily temperature in December looks like 15F. Wait for the food and fuel riots to begin. That's OK---President Obama will just print more funny money and all will be well. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.
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