How many Massachusetts residents are permanently un insurable due to pre-existing conditions?

[YewNork]

The health reform bills before Congress were going to eliminate denial of insurance due to pre-existing conditions.

How many Massachusetts residents realized this when they voted for Brown, or did they need to care?

[MannyGoldstein]

1. Now We Only Have The Presidency And Large Majorities in Both Houses

The 60 vote thing is bogus, simply an excuse for Obama/Emanuel et al to go hard right. At least that's what the few honest pols such as Grayson, Waxman, and Dean tell us.

Time for actual change, not coddling and whimpering.

[Captain Hilts]

5. I think Dean was right that we'd be better off with 54 or so Dems, then we wouldn't

worry about what Ollie Snowe thinks.

[mdmc]

2. not many?

most people get their insurance through their employer. MA is very expensive, so you would need to make made cash to be self employed.

MA voted for Brown cause the GOP GOTV better then the dems. They had energy and motivation.
We had Wall St. bailouts, and no public option (let alone single payer) - we were not as motiviated.

[Captain Hilts]

6. Mass has its own plan & because the cost of HC is expensive there they're afraid of the cadillac tax

[Captain Hilts]

3. They have their own health plan for which they're afraid of being taxed. nt

[Nite Owl]

4. It was at a cost.

The pre-existing condition clause allowed the patient to be charged up to 300% more. That isn't a help, who can afford it? The clause must be community rated, all pay the same. It's what we have in NY and would no longer have, it would override state regs. That's why the buy across state lines is so wrong, states that already did something would be set back by the bill.

[grytpype]

7. Oh, but they would have to pay for insurance, that makes the libs cry.

They are going to vote Republican until everyone gets free health care.

[YewNork]

8. Sure, that's the way to get it...

Try to equate this to the following scenario:

You have a group of 10 kids and you tell them to choose one dessert for the whole group.

Four say they want cupcakes.

Six say they want ice cream sundaes.

But there isn't enough ingredients to make ice cream sundaes. But you could give everybody a scoop of ice cream.

Four of the six who wanted sundaes agree. They'd rather have plain ice cream than none at all.
But the other two shout out "if we can't have sundaes then nobody gets any ice cream!".

[Nite Owl]

9. The bills can't be so great as to cause

bankruptcy. Maybe you have the money to pay out for the expensive premiums and deductibles and maybe you are blessed with good health but many don't have that luxury. I though liberals were the ones with empathy and those without were called republicans.

[Denver Dave]

10. 98% Coverage is what we're being told

The strength of the Massachusetts plan is that they are claiming 98% coverage. I'm accepting that figure, but I'm not sure how good the coverage is - what are the co-pays, deductibles, caps, etc. However, as others on the thread have indicated, the main issue with Massachusetts is that they did not change the basic system to control costs. Also, this idea of being required by law to purchase a plan from a for-profit health insurance plan, does not sit very well with me. A non-profit plan maybe, but not from for-profit companies. And what really gets me is when we subsidize, we also pay for the plans for other people from the for-profit companies.

For more information about Massachusetts and health care reform, please see the Massachusetts section of HCTalk.com:
http://hctalk.com/viewforum.php?f=18

Also, the Cape Care project in Massachusetts is working to create a single-payer system at the county level:
http://hctalk.com/viewtopic.php?t=816

Enjoy, and we really need help for people that live in different states to share what is happening in their states.

Dave