EDITORIAL: Massachusetts Miracle: Politicians Agree on Health Care for All
Posted on: Thursday, 6 April 2006, 12:00 CDT
By The Sacramento Bee, Calif.
Apr. 6--The California Legislature is nowhere close to figuring out a way to provide health care to every man, woman and child in the state. But while California sinks into a political culture of ever-lowering expectations, a remarkable thing has happened in Massachusetts. There, Republican and Democratic lawmakers have agreed on a system of universal health care, the first of its kind in the nation.
The "system," not surprisingly, is a political compromise, supported by both Democratic lawmakers and a Republican governor. And it may actually work, or at least provide clues on how to create a functional system elsewhere, including California.
The underlying responsibilities in this Massachusetts model are quite clear: Both companies and individuals have to do something about health care. Nobody escapes. Everyone, as a result, gets a doctor.
The underlying structure, relying on private insurance companies and health maintenance organizations, doesn't change. What changes, to an extent, is how the beast is fed.
Companies, for example, face a new choice. Either they provide health care themselves or pay money to the state. And those citizens who don't have health care face a new mandate. Under Massachusetts law, they must get health insurance. In California, it has long been a state requirement to insure your automobile against damage, for example. In Massachusetts, that same requirement is about to apply to the human body.
There are two glaring questions with this so-called "individual mandate" system that requires everyone to sign up for health care. What happens if somebody simply doesn't buy insurance, gets sick and shows up at a hospital for help? And what happens if the person can't afford insurance?
The state (with the help of those funds from companies that won't be providing health care) is planning to subsidize the health premiums for the "poor." Defining who is poor enough to qualify for help is a never-ending debate.
The Massachusetts plan is not perfect. For example, it may do nothing to control the ever-rising costs of health care. But it does go a long way toward solving a huge problem - the uninsured. There are 6 million or so of them in California at any given time. In the Capitol, there is no serious attempt to do anything about it.
As a candidate for governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger vowed to insure every child in the state. As governor, he seems to have forgotten that pledge. Maybe a fact-finding mission by some key leaders to Massachusetts is in order. Its action and our gridlockare more signs of just how far California has slipped from our rightful role as an innovator.
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Copyright (c) 2006, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.
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Source: The Sacramento Bee
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