Posted on 12/25/2007, 2:50:20 PM by lowbridge
Gee, What A Surprise...
Well, it's been about a year since Massachusetts mandated that everyone get health insurance, and how's it working out?
In a move that no one foresaw (except those with a modicum of common sense), numerous businesses that found themselves facing hefty bills for covering employees they had not had to cover before. And some of them found some truly novel ways to avoid -- or minimize -- the hit.
After all, when a business faces a new set of expenses, who could possibly expect them to do all they could within the law to minimize their costs? Inconceivable!
One company had been offering full coverage for all its salaried employees, and picked up the full tab. Now by law they have to offer coverage for all full-time employees, and they all have to have access to the same plans. So now anyone who wants coverage has to pay half the bill -- including those who'd been covered 100% before.
Another saw that companies with fewer than 11 employees were exempt, so it split itself into a bunch of smaller companies, each with 10 or fewer employees.
One company ran the numbers and saw that the fines for not offering insurance was less than the premiums would have been -- so they chose to take the hit.
Another "perverse incentive" was for companies to attempt to help their workers by denying them access to the company's health plan. Under the law, anyone who could sign up for insurance through their work -- no matter how high the premiums -- was ineligible for the state-sponsored programs. So one company jacked up the minimum hours needed to qualify for access from 20 hours a week to 30 -- because it knew that many of its employees simply could not afford the premiums, but would not be eligible for the state programs.
The original idea behind Massachusetts' "health insurance for all" plan was a fine, noble one. It was also colossally stupid.
First of all, there are valid reasons why someone would choose to go without health insurance. A lot of young people, for example, are healthy and would rather spend their money on other things -- or save it.
More importantly, they don't have to have a valid reason. "I don't want it" should be a perfectly valid answer to most attempts by the government to "help" people.
Yes, for the vast majority of people, having health insurance is a good thing. Lord knows I'd be in a world of trouble without mine. But attempting to ram it down everyone's throat in a "one size fits all" solution is just going to cause far more problems than it's worth.
I keep wondering at what point insurance companies will simply decide that doing business in Massachusetts (which is rapidly becoming "doing business WITH Massachusetts," as the commonwealth intervenes more and more) is more hassle than it's worth. What then will they do?
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
so in other words, the same people who couldn’t get healthcare in the free market system are the same people who can’t get healthcare in an semi-socialist system.
Knowledge means $$$.
How could we possibly think of breaking the flow and depriving politicians of their fair share of our labor? /s
The other assumption is that there is a nearly infinite supply of money if there are enough people paying. Spread the cost around and everyone can afford it. In short, a socialist utopia, and we all know how well that works.
Bet that won't take very long to change.
funny they don’t mention the most obvious solution to this for companies: pay for employees elsewhere
Somebody show me just one government-run health care scheme that has been successful over the long run, say, 20+ years.
.........
I’m waiting......
{crickets}
They’ll ‘fix’ all those things.
Probably the first day back in session!
mitt will do for the USA what he did for MA!!!!
Exactly the way that so many government criminals think. In their view, treating employers "fairly" means screwing them. If any of them have the temerity to defend themselves, well then the mob will step in and make them an offer that they can't refuse. In their small-minded view of the world, they can put added financial burdens on businesses, while expecting the business owners to "eat" the resulting decrease in their profits. But these idiots fail to grasp the simplest concepts - such as the fact that the business will do whatever it can do to prevent that from happening, because they are in business to make profits, and not to be a cash cow for Commie-inspired social programs. Therefore, that will translate into higher prices (if they are able to get them without driving away business), or reducing other expenses (such as "labor" expenses).
Socialist and Communist schemes like this one are all predicated on the assumption that "you can't escape". But in the real world, people who have brains will try to escape. That's why they end up building Berlin Walls surrounded by kill zones to terminate with extreme prejudice any free spirits who mistakenly think that there is an alternative to the iron-fisted control of the State. After all, they're doing this for your own good. You should be grateful that your overseers have your welfare as their greatest concern. If you aren't grateful, then it's either the buzzsaw or else it's off to the psychiatric hospital for you and your family and your business.
These government idiots think that it will be too difficult to escape their clutches by moving your operations outside of the Bay State. But they have a plan to deal with that, too, if it becomes too big of a problem (for them, that is, not for you) - a combination of increased personal taxation and corporate taxation, along with the hoped-for Hillary-care, will ensure that there is nowhere to run to, nowhere to hide. Of course, until the Revolution, that is...
This sentence alone demonstrates the insanity of this law and the nitwits that passed it.
The STATE determines what is affordable for you??? What could possibly go wrong.
Like many MA citizens who don't like MA laws, the companies will vote with their feet... adios MA !!
Was all this Romney’s doing?
What most in Washington state have done. Pull out.
It is human nature to minimize the impact of laws, stupid or otherwise.
I've always gotten a raised eyebrow when I suggest that every lawmaking body should have a convicted criminal on their staff in the capacity of a Devil's Advocate. He should be shown a new laws first draft and asked, "How would you get around this?". After the third or fourth pass, it should be pretty tight.
I've seen laws that were stupifying in their naivete being passed, as with this law, and then when the loopholes were immediately exploited, the pols show/feign surprise.
Of course the idea will never get anywhere as sometimes these laws are intentionally written sloppily, although I think most are written by people who have no real-world/business experience.
Isn’t Romney Care his health care program he wants to bring nationwide? Yes its his doing. The deficit in Taxachusettts are just now starting to show up as this program’s costs begin to skyrocket. It is an utter boondoggle of the Hillary Clinton size.
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