Related: Slow Saturday Special: Single Payer Op
Had to pick this up from my LOCAL!
"What set the stage for Tennessee's go-slow approach was the state's history with expanding health insurance during the 1990s.... "Our experience with trying to do universal coverage ended up being a disaster."
Oh, so TENNESSEE ummm, BEEN THERE, DONE THAT!!!!
And you want to NATIONALIZE such FOLLY, America?
"Congress can learn from Mass., Tenn. health plans
.... Congressional lawmakers can look north to Massachusetts and south to Tennessee for guidance as they craft a national plan to restrain costs and cover the nation's estimated 50 million uninsured.
In Massachusetts, nearly every resident has health insurance, but doctors are turning away new patients, costs to the state are climbing and thousands have paid tax penalties for being uninsured.
Related: What Your National Health Plan Will Look Like
How You Will Pay For Your Medicine
Why You Are Getting National Health Care
Taxing the American Public's Health
Are you sure you want our style, America?
And what is even more galling to the Globe -- and the reason they overlooked it, I'm sure) is that TENNESSEE (Hi, Kenny) had been DOWN THIS ROAD ALREADY!!!!
In Tennessee, that state's much smaller program hasn't cramped the budget, but few people are buying the new insurance even though premiums are as cheap as a monthly cell phone bill....
A Massachusetts-style requirement for individuals to obtain health insurance is likely to emerge as part of the health overhaul taking shape in Congress, although details remain unsettled.
Pay up, Amurkn!
A variation of Tennessee's practice of charging higher premiums to smokers and those who are overweight also may emerge; some in Congress are discussing a lifestyle tax on alcohol and sugar-sweetened drinks to help finance the national plan.
I guess NO STATE is PERFECT!!
Why can't we just have a Sicko-style plan anyway?
Also see: Boston Globe Bullies
You sure those kids are fat?
Pared-down benefits may lie ahead in Massachusetts because throngs of the newly insured swelled costs of Commonwealth Care to $628 million last year.
Yeah, a RIP-OFF is WHY!!!!
And the demand for care is outstripping the number of doctors. One in five Massachusetts adults said a doctor's office or clinic told them they weren't taking new patients with their type of insurance, or they weren't accepting new patients at all, according to a new study published Thursday in the journal Health Affairs.
But we are so superior to the rest of the country with our unquestioned liberal orthodoxy -- which is enough to make you run for an airsick bag (forget the hospital stay, they won't cover it. I KNOW FIRST-HAND to the tune of about $8,000 -- which is why I'm broke and outta work!!!!)
Massachusetts chose to cover virtually everyone. It set high standards for minimum health insurance and decided to deal with costs later....
Translation; it was set up to allow the insurance companies to loot us -- just as biotech and Hollywood have done (and you-know-who).
And now take the gut-puncher, Bay-Stater!
Those racist, redneck southerners your Zionist school system trained you to hate?
Turns out they are BETTER THAN YOU!!!!!!!!!!!
Tennessee, on the other hand, chose to get just a few more people bare-bones insurance at a budget price with limits on how much plans would pay for hospital stays.
In Chattanooga, Tenn., Nash, who had worked at a car dealership, and her husband, Larry, now pay $193 a month for their state-subsidized coverage, called CoverTN. Their doctor visits and generic drugs are covered, but the plan pays only $10,000 a year on hospital bills. A serious medical crisis could bankrupt them.
"My husband and I barely squeak by as it is now," Valerie Nash said. "It would be a devastating blow."
Compared to Massachusetts, Tennessee is similar in population size, but has more uninsured adults of working age and higher rates of diabetes, childhood obesity, low birth weight and smoking.
Yeah, so....
What set the stage for Tennessee's go-slow approach was the state's history with expanding health insurance during the 1990s, said Gov. Phil Bredesen.
A state program built around Medicaid, called TennCare, "got totally out of control. It was growing at 15 percent a year. Tennessee had the most expensive Medicaid program in the country," Bredesen said. "Our experience with trying to do universal coverage ended up being a disaster."
When Bredesen took office in 2003, he inherited soaring state health care spending. In 2005, he cut 170,000 adults from TennCare. He reduced benefits for thousands more.His new initiative, CoverTN, takes "baby steps" toward covering more people. It targets workers at small businesses, the self-employed and the recently unemployed. The cost of monthly premiums is shared by the state, the individual and employers. No one is forced to participate.
It's called FREEDOM!
Bredesen said the plan design reflects what uninsured Tennesseans want — primary care, not catastrophic care — in a trimmed-down package....
Yeah, God help you if you do what the people want here in Massachusetts!
We don't have those kind of politicians.
The program costs less than anticipated and a fraction of Massachusetts' cost....
That's because our program is set up for insurance companies to loot us.
