And they want to use us as a model for the nation?
BEWARE, America! BEWARE!!!
See: Why the Nation Doesn't Need Massachusetts Health Care
Massachusetts Health Care Takes a Seat on the S***ter
The Massachusetts Model
The Universal Health Care Rip-Off
Swapping Partners Good For Health
The Business of Health Care
The Most Important Civil Rights Issue of the Century
And HOW MANY TIMES I gotta LINK Sicko, anyway?
Let me beat that dead horse once more: IF we can not put together something like what the Canadians, French, or English, then I don't want any part of it. Take PROFIT and INSURANCE OUT and make it SINGLE-PAYER like THEY HAVE!!!
We ALL KNOW WHY ($$$$) AmeriKa doesn't have national health care, don't we?
"High healthcare costs taking toll on insured" by Kay Lazar, Globe Staff | May 2, 2009
Despite Massachusetts' pioneering 2006 health insurance overhaul, healthcare costs are devouring more than 10 percent of thousands of residents' income, according to a new study from Families USA, a nonprofit organization that lobbies for affordable care.
Thanks for gouging us, Partners.
The study, released yesterday, found that more than 1 million Massachusetts residents are in families that will spend more than 10 percent of their pretax income on healthcare this year, even though the vast majority of them - roughly 94 percent - have health insurance. Also of note: Their ranks have increased 46 percent since 2000.
"High healthcare costs are not just a problem of the uninsured," said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA. "Increasingly people are finding that healthcare costs are consuming a larger and larger portion of their family budget."
In some families, the study found, healthcare costs eat up far more than 10 percent: Nearly 300,000 Bay Staters are in families that will spend more than a quarter of their pretax income on healthcare, researchers found. Again, the vast majority - 90 percent - have insurance, Pollack said.
In 2006, Massachusetts launched a first-in-the-nation initiative requiring nearly everyone to get health insurance or pay a tax penalty. Because of that law, Massachusetts now has the highest percentage of insured in the country. But soaring monthly premiums, combined with skimpier coverage for services and medications, has burdened many with bills they can no longer afford. And calls to consumer help lines from residents with health insurance are mounting.
"We get calls all the time from people who want to pay their medical bills, their debts are mounting, they have gone through their savings to pay their bills and don't have the resources to cover them," said Carol Pryor, policy director at Access Project, a Massachusetts nonprofit that helps consumers negotiate payment plans.
And if we had SICKO no one need worry -- not even the illegal immigrants!
Of course, we have trillions for wars and bank bailouts while protecting health insurance industry profits.
Much of the rise in healthcare costs nationwide, the study concludes, is linked to increasing use of prescriptions and hospital care, pricey new medical screenings, and an insurance market with few consumer protections.
Yeah, yeah, they always have reasons galore why it's screwed up, but when you argue for single-payer you get arrested.
A state commission is working on strategies to help slow spiraling healthcare costs, which are growing faster than the national average. "Until we do some thing about the way we pay for healthcare and reduce some of the inefficiencies in the system and redesign the way care is delivered, we can't expect anything other than those costs will increase," said Anya Rader Wallack, who cochairs the commission's cost-containment committee....
Welcome to your health care future, Amura!
Massachushitts sure is a good state to loot.
Across the country, 64 million people under age 65 are in families spending more than 10 percent of their pretax income on healthcare, the Families USA study concluded. Nearly 19 million are spending more than 25 percent of their income, and most of them have insurance.
--more--"I'm tired of screaming Sicko and single-payer, folks.
The ANSWER and SOLUTION is RIGHT IN FRONT of YOU!!!!!
