Some (an agenda-pushing paper that was in favor) say yes:
"Mass. bashers take note: Health reform is working
PUNDITS and politicians who oppose universal healthcare for the nation have a new straw man to kick around - the Massachusetts reform plan that covers more than 97 percent of the state’s residents. In the myth that these critics have manufactured, this state’s plan is bleeding taxpayers dry, creating nothing less than a medical Big Dig.
The facts - according to the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation - are quite different....
What would the newspaper and its pro-business, pro-tax "experts" know about the facts?
In Massachusetts, cost estimates for the reform plan before its passage in 2006 were so low that Romney and the reform law’s Democratic supporters in the Legislature were able to get away without creating a new tax to fund it. After the costly Wall Street bailout and the $787 billion stimulus package, that option is... open to President Obama and Congress. But Congress should not allow itself to be buffaloed by false claims about Massachusetts into fearing a tsunami of red ink....
What, more taxes to defend a program the Glob loves? What a shock.
--more--"
"Health plans may fall short, Mass. says; Loopholes in law leave room for limits on coverage" by Kay Lazar, Globe Staff | June 12, 2009
The state's pioneering healthcare law requires residents to have insurance that meets minimum standards, but regulators are discovering many employers' plans test the limits by exploiting loopholes in the rules.
Regulators yesterday said that reviews of scores of health plans show many cap the benefits insurers pay each year on prescription drug coverage, exclude maternity coverage for dependents, or place an annual overall dollar limit on benefits....
So that is already happening even as they talk about it as "reform."
Because the state's healthcare initiative makes obtaining insurance an individual responsibility, employees - not their employers - are subject to a tax penalty of up to $1,000 a year if regulators determine a company's plan falls short of minimum standards.
As Congress debates an overhaul of the nation's healthcare system, borrowing heavily from the Massachusetts blueprint, any flaws in the state's system are likely to become part of the discussion, said healthcare policy specialists.
Doesn't seem like they have to me.
"You can bet, to the extent that Massachusetts is a bellwether for this proposal nationally, that the difficulty the state is having now, that foretells what is going to happen on the national level, only much bigger," said Jon Oberlander, an associate professor of health policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill....
Related: Boston Globe Omissions: Hiding Health Care Failure
You sure you want it, America?
--more--"
- The Massachusetts Model: Comes At a Premium
- The Massachusetts Model: Screwing Small Business
- The Massachusetts Model: Going Out of Business
- The Massachusetts Model: Crazy Coverage
- The Massachusetts Model: Immigrant Insult
- The Massachusetts Model: Profit and the Paycheck
- The Massachusetts Model: Doctors' Diet
- The Massachusetts Model: By the Numbers
- The Massachusetts Model: Treasurer's Assessment
- The Massachusetts Model: Care-Keeping Costs
- The Massachusetts Model: Mass. Hospitality
