A bill has recently been introduced in the Massachusetts Legislature that would replace the current system of mandatory private health care coverage with a new single payer system to be administered by a newly created Massachusetts Health Care Trust. The bill has the support of about 50 members of the legislature and is being aggressively pushed by a group called Mass-Care or the Massachusetts Campaign for Single Payer Healthcare.
The frightening thing is that the bill is somehow gaining traction in the legislature despite all of the known problems with the model and the tremendous importance of the healthcare industry to the state’s economy. Only the Massachusetts Legislature could seriously consider unilaterally imposing a single-payer system statewide without any regard for the effects on the healthcare industry here. The primary objective, according to the proponents of the bill, is to reduce costs which are growing at an alarming rate here in the Commonwealth. If the healthcare industry is run by profit fanatics as we are lead to believe, what incentive would the industry have to stay in Massachusetts? Does anyone want the same people who run the MBTA or the Registry of Motor Vehicles to have more money? There are some who continue to fervently support the single-payer government-managed healthcare systems despite the unfavorable comparisons, particularly in fields of severe disease care and access to specialists.
This bill in all honesty probably wont pass. One would hope that the people sent to Beacon Hill would logically consider what this bill would do to both the economy and the quality of healthcare in the state. However, my life long experience with Massachusetts politics leads me to believe that this bill will be on the debate schedule for a long time before the legislature comes to its senses.
More info via the Milford Daily News
