and creates a storm thousands of miles away. Maybe.
In any event, it seems inconceivable that last night's historic vote could have ever happened without the experience of Massachusetts' experiment with near-universal health care, passed in 2006. It was a bipartisan achievement: the legislation itself was mostly Sal DiMasi's project, but constructively engaged and signed by former Gov. Romney, with an assist from Senate President Travaglini.
But as David Bernstein recently reminded us, they and the other “stakeholders” might never have come to the table without the threat of a health care ballot initiative. Pushed by the ACT! coalition, an organization-of-organizations that included Health Care for All, SEIU locals and the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization, the ballot question would have created a “pay-or-play” employer mandate and insured thousands of people.
About the time we started this blog, I was volunteering with GBIO on that ballot question, getting signatures, and learning about policy from John McDonough, then the head of HCFA. We went to hearings, talked to pols, applied pressure. Sensing the issue running away from them, legislators and the governor got out front, and actually produced a plan that was far from perfect, but achieved a lot of what we set out to do; in fact, as a near-universal plan, it was arguably more ambitious than the ballot initiative.
A lot of people have been helped by the law in Massachusetts. 97% of the population has insurance. Access is better than it was. It's a hell of a lot easier to buy insurance on the open market than it used to be. And MA outlawed rescission and pre-existing condition exclusions in the 1990's. It's not perfect by any stretch; but it's been the best in the country.
Point is … this started with a bunch of folks dealing with the problem in front of them, on a local basis, at home. You never know where things are going to lead.
You start at the local level. Get it up to the state level. Tweak it, refine it, and get it national.
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p>This is why it’s so important to get involved in local politics. That’s where we get to try new things, experiment, and refine, on a micro scale that allows for a much lower risk.
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p>It’s something we progressives need to do more of — every progressive BMG reader needs to get involved with a Town Meeting race, a School Committee race, a City Council race, something. Get in a local board for anything in which you’ve got some expertise. Get out there and nudge policy in the direction you think it ought to go. Enough nudges from enough places, and we’ve got real policy improvements.
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p>Don’t think that the Theocons didn’t think of this already… check out School Board elections in Texas.
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p>So many people in Massachusetts don’t understand that we are insulated from many of the difficulties encountered by others around the nation with respect to rescission and pre-existing condition exclusions.
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p>Every day I thank the cosmic dust that my son’s father and I lived in Massachusetts for the duration of his illness. His diagnosis with cancer in 1998 was quickly followed by a rapid changes in employment that in any other state would have rendered him uninsurable. The cost of all of the medication, diagnostic testing, and treatment he received during the nine years following his diagnosis as well as the treatment he received following the recurrence of his cancer in 2007 would have bankrupted us. We would have been on the street. But every employer he had or I had, depending on which of us carried the better plan, enrolled him and covered him–no questions.
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p>When I reflect on the day I sat in the day surgery waiting room with a 10-month-old baby fussing on my lap as the surgeon explained to me that the lump in his breast was not a sebaceous cyst but a tumor, I can’t even imagine hearing that news and having to worry about insurance at the same time. It was bad enough worrying about how he was going to keep a job, but that’s a story for another time.
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p>This nation can do better. Every time someone says this health care reform initiative is a bad move, I encourage people to remember that not everyone lives in Massachusetts.
It might cost less than my former $7000 company sponsored plan but it pays for nothing so what do you do? Stop going to the doctor.
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p>If you happen to be homeless you might qualify for Mass Health but otherwise check out the over 55 clause about the state billing your estate.
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p>When I see a horsemanure pile it is a horsemanure pile so don’t try to tell me it’s a flying unicorn.
MassHealth even includes mental health benefits. With all due respect, you should take advantage of them.
It was called the seventies. I did see however new additions to the DSW such as “oppositional defiance disorder”. Apparently this applies to people who don’t like globalized corpo-fascism.
I’m not sure what the DSW is, but “oppositional defiant disorder” affects children and adolescents. The DSM has been tracking it for at least 10 years.
People who call 911 because McDonalds shorted them a large fry or man on the street interviews show people pointing to Austrailia and saying “we” should bomb Iran next but one thing is clear in this never live and let live post 911 world. Government and the globalists who own it have stuck a boot in my face.
Oppositional Defiant Disorder is not what you think it is.
The precedent of RomneyCare/DiMasiCare may have given the Democrats cover for a more-corporate path to follow.
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p>Once Scott Brown got elected the Dems realized they had to actually do something – RomneyCare was a far to the right as they could go and still make big cheering sounds.
No thanks to you, MG. đŸ˜€