Obamacare Turns Mass. From Model To Mayhem

22 Feb, 2014 by William Teach

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At one point, Massachusetts was the model for Obamacare. Whatever your opinion of a state run insurance program, with a requirement that people must purchase health insurance, it seemed to work. Most residents supported it. Most liked it. Roughly 98% of the citizens obtained health insurance. And under the stewardship of Republican governor, it wasn’t a disaster. Romney may have been a “Blue state” Republican, but the man knew how business worked and How To Get Things Done. Alas, along came Obamacare, as Robert Eno, a Mass. resident who has been writing about Romneycare for years tells us

(Daily Caller) But the changes mandated by Obama’s Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, have actually gutted the effectiveness of Massachusetts’ once-working model.

Thanks to Obamacare, in 2012, Massachusetts began a transition to a new federally compliant health exchange, budgeted to cost $69 million. But to date, not one person has purchased health care through that federally funded exchange.

In addition, Jean Yang, the executive director of the Health Connector Authority, told her board that 50,000 paper applications remain unprocessed – leading the Commonwealth’s leading progressive blog to quip that, “lives are at risk.”

What was once working in Mass. is now a failure, thanks to Ocare. The AP even stated that Mass. is almost dead last in Ocare implementation. Mass. received a $69 million grant to overhaul the website, and CGI was in charge. That worked as well as it did for the federal exchange. The Democrats in charge of implementation and the state government failed completely in getting the website to work. The website continued to fail, Mass. resorted to paper application, waivers were given, coverages were extended, accommodations made for those who were still “unsubsidized”, and officials from the Patrick administration (all Democrats) refused to be honest with the public, and really had no plan.

And, yes, this is about the website not working, not about obtaining health care via the now more expensive insurance. Obamacare took a system that worked and turned it into a pure mess.Particularly since Democrats were implementing, or, at least, attempting to implement it. That said, just wait until people try and use it. One thing FactCheck noted on Romneycare facts and falsehoods was

The major components of the state and federal law are similar, but details vary. The federal law put a greater emphasis on cost-control measures, for instance. Massachusetts is just now tackling that.

Those cost controls are what will lead to poor care, rationing, and limited networks, among other issues. Mass. tried to implement what would work best for the state. Obamacare attempts to implement one Big Solution for the entire country. And fails.

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove. Follow me on Twitter @WilliamTeach.