Comments on: MASSACHUSETTS: Doing the same thing and expecting different results http://www.socialmedicine.org/2010/02/26/uncategorized/massachusetts-doing-the-same-thing-and-expecting-different-results/ An Alternative to Corporate Health (founded in 2004) Sat, 07 Jan 2012 22:12:58 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Sophia Constantino http://www.socialmedicine.org/2010/02/26/uncategorized/massachusetts-doing-the-same-thing-and-expecting-different-results/#comment-363 Sophia Constantino Fri, 05 Mar 2010 06:23:10 +0000 http://www.socialmedicine.org/?p=4138#comment-363 Thank you Dr. Fox for your comments. The data I have used for the blog, however, paints a different picture in terms of satisfaction with the Massachusetts plan than the one you suggest. I invite you to look at the sources linked in my blog for evidence that many residents are very unhappy, because the plan, while working for the relatively healthy and employed, sorely fails the sick, the lower-income, and those thrown to the ‘individual market’. I am sure you will agree that the measure of successful reform is not whether it works for those who do not need the system or are better off, but for those who need it and may be in vulnerable positions. Also, the sources I cite also indicate that the proponents of the Massachusetts plan decided, unwisely in the opinion of many, including mine, to leave the issue of cost control for “later”. As a result of this, the state promised more than what it could actually achieve, and as costs of health care continue to rise, because the profit motive in the sale of insurance policies was let untouched, the system has reduced services, enrollment, and subsidies. As an aside, I am not surprised that The New York Times and the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation support the Massachusets plan, as they have been supporting the Democrats’ plan, which includes a mandate and is essentially a “clone” of Massachusetts. But a universal obligation to purchase a for-profit policy is not a universal right to health care, by a long shot. And I have yet to see a single policy reason why these prestigious institutions dismiss a single-payer system. As for Single Payer, my hope lies in the power of the people, in their capacity to create a movement similar to the civil rights movement to enact REAL change in health policy. Thank you Dr. Fox for your comments. The data I have used for the blog, however, paints a different picture in terms of satisfaction with the Massachusetts plan than the one you suggest. I invite you to look at the sources linked in my blog for evidence that many residents are very unhappy, because the plan, while working for the relatively healthy and employed, sorely fails the sick, the lower-income, and those thrown to the ‘individual market’. I am sure you will agree that the measure of successful reform is not whether it works for those who do not need the system or are better off, but for those who need it and may be in vulnerable positions.

Also, the sources I cite also indicate that the proponents of the Massachusetts plan decided, unwisely in the opinion of many, including mine, to leave the issue of cost control for “later”. As a result of this, the state promised more than what it could actually achieve, and as costs of health care continue to rise, because the profit motive in the sale of insurance policies was let untouched, the system has reduced services, enrollment, and subsidies.

As an aside, I am not surprised that The New York Times and the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation support the Massachusets plan, as they have been supporting the Democrats’ plan, which includes a mandate and is essentially a “clone” of Massachusetts. But a universal obligation to purchase a for-profit policy is not a universal right to health care, by a long shot. And I have yet to see a single policy reason why these prestigious institutions dismiss a single-payer system.

As for Single Payer, my hope lies in the power of the people, in their capacity to create a movement similar to the civil rights movement to enact REAL change in health policy.

]]> By: Aaron Fox, MD http://www.socialmedicine.org/2010/02/26/uncategorized/massachusetts-doing-the-same-thing-and-expecting-different-results/#comment-362 Aaron Fox, MD Sat, 27 Feb 2010 12:44:06 +0000 http://www.socialmedicine.org/?p=4138#comment-362 The Massachusetts election was not a referendum on mandates. There are vocal opponents to Massachusetts' mandate based "universal coverage," but the program is popular and people seem to be satisfied. To me, the election indicates that voters won't "pay" for something that they perceive will be of no benefit to them. Sad, but this seems to be the case. Single payer is a good plan, the volumes of research and powerful talking points speak for themselves, but what is the strategy for enacting it in the United States (especially when voters in a liberal state are voting Republican)? From the NYT on Jan 26th: A poll taken in Massachusetts after the election by The Washington Post, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health found that a surprising 68 percent of those who had voted said that they supported their own state’s plan, including slightly more than half of those who had voted for Mr. Brown. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/opinion/26tues1.html The Massachusetts election was not a referendum on mandates. There are vocal opponents to Massachusetts’ mandate based “universal coverage,” but the program is popular and people seem to be satisfied. To me, the election indicates that voters won’t “pay” for something that they perceive will be of no benefit to them. Sad, but this seems to be the case. Single payer is a good plan, the volumes of research and powerful talking points speak for themselves, but what is the strategy for enacting it in the United States (especially when voters in a liberal state are voting Republican)?

From the NYT on Jan 26th:

A poll taken in Massachusetts after the election by The Washington Post, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health found that a surprising 68 percent of those who had voted said that they supported their own state’s plan, including slightly more than half of those who had voted for Mr. Brown.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/opinion/26tues1.html

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