Alright Massachusetts! After years of being Connecticut's bumbling older sister (I'm too polite to mention The Big Dig catastrophe) you've finally come up with something I think I like. No not that, let's not get crazy. I'm talking about universal health care, at least in Massachusetts. I'll admit, I was a bit skeptical of a plan that calls itself universal simply by requiring people to purchase health insurance but thankfully there is more too it than that. It actually includes something I've been saying for some time, we're paying for health care for the people who can't afford it outright so why does everyone get so uptight when we talk about government subsidies? This is central to the proposal.
Here's the plan:
1) Require all MA residents to purchase health insurance and impose fines on individuals and employers with more than 10 employees who do not purchase it. The fines are equal to 50% of what the premium would be. (Don't worry there's more)
2) Individuals making under $29,000 get a pass. No premium, no deductible with tiered subsidies as family incomes increase.
Aside from being humane, it just makes sense. With more people buying into the system and hospitals not getting stuck with the bill, health insurance rates will decrease making health care more affordable for everyone in the long run and decreasing the system's dependence on state subsidies.
Sure some people have some concerns but I think it is an aggressive plan with real potential to change the system fundamentally and get the health care situation under control. So I'm all for it, in fact I'm jealous MA thought of it first, but universal health care is about as liberal an issue as you can get so don't think I favor conservatism too much. Now if we could just get that illegal immigration under control....
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