… for the state, at least. Mass. Taxpayers Foundation (Mike Widmer's outfit) says it has only cost the state [an increase of] $88 million a year:
An analysis by the Massachusetts Taxpayer Foundation finds that the cost of this achievement has been relatively modest and well within early projections of how much the state would have to spend to implement reform.
Based on actual and projected spending data for the first four years of health care reform, the Foundation concludes that state budget spending on health reform has grown from a base of $1.041 billion in fiscal 2006 to a projected $1.748 billion in fiscal 2010. That is an increase of $707 million, half of which is supported by federal reimbursements. The $353 million state share translates into an average yearly increase of only $88 million.
How has Massachusetts been able to reduce the number of uninsured to less than three percent of its population while spending so few new public dollars? To a large degree, the answer can be found in the unique way the law's programs and incentives act in concert to expand access to subsidized coverage for low-income adults and children largely through a reallocation of funds from uncompensated care, while also encouraging enrollment in employer-sponsored and individual health insurance plans.
So … all this comes back to implementation. Yes, a good chunk of that money comes from the feds. Who negotiated that deal? The Patrick administration, at some considerable length, with a big assist from Ted Kennedy, natch. Who is jawboning insurers and providers into keeping costs down? The Patrick administration, with backup from AG Coakley. Who was doing cost control legislation? Terry Murray … and the Governor.
Lots of credit to go around.
I’m looking at the table you linked to.
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p>I don’t understand their “$88 m” set-up. I mean mathematically, I get it. In terms of being a meaningful number, I don’t.
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p>MA spent on health care
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p>$1.041 b in 06
$1.309 b in 07
$1.686 b in 08
$1.858 b in 09
$1.748 b in 10 (projected)
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p>Wouldn’t it be more useful to say MA now spends 70 to 80% more than we did back in 2006, with half of that increase reimbursed by the feds?
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p>I don’t know if that’s good or bad.
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p>It seems like a pretty fast growth rate overall…
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p>
that the point is that it was less than was feared. I’ve corrected (I hope) my own lead-in, above.
That’s another point. If we did not have the health care law in effect, they would have still been increases. I don’t think you can say that the increase in numbers is solely due to the health care law.
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p>At some point we do need to see a downward trend, and if the projects numbers pan out maybe we’ve reached the crest this year. Mitt had Bush and Deval has Obama, but there is only so long we can expect the fed to support this.
Hi All:
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p> As there is still at least 3% of the residents of our Commonwealth who do not have coverage, can someone elaborate on who these people are?
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p> I think that I can. These are people who make too much to be able to “buy – in” to state sponsored programs and cannot afford to get coverage on their own. I think it is a sad state of affairs that the legislature didn’t even consider striking a deal with those insurers who participate in the “Massachusetts Health Connector” program to give the working poor a break. Pitiful and shame on them.
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p>”The poor stay poor, and the rich get rich.” – Don Henley from Everybody Knows
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p>Respectfully Submitted,
Sincerely,
Wayne J. Wilson, Jr.
(A medical collection agent for Universal Single Payor insurance coverage)
I don’t know if there is a study out there that provides the demographics, but there might be. Don’t know if you were aware of one.
Hi:
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p> My supposition is just that. I have heard of several people who are caught in the trap of making too much to be able to afford “Buy – In” coverage. Not as if they make a hundred thousand dollars a year or more like 21% of the approximately 500 people who work for the “quasi-public” agencies in Massachusetts that have been discussed in the news as of late.
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p>Sincerely,
Wayne