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Wednesday, April 5. 2006

A Home Run for Mitt Romney?

Massachusetts has a new medical insurance law. I don't understand it all, but Bruce Kesler likes it, and he studies these things.

The key is that you are required to be insured. Like with car ownership - if you own a body, you have to insure that darn thing yourself so you don't dump your maintenance costs directly onto everyone else. And taking care of one's health and one's family's health is a greater source of pride than taking care of the car - or should be.

Interestingly, it turned out that most of the uninsured in Massachusetts were young single men - they figure they are invincible, and they would rather buy beer and cars and F150s and deer rifles and Ezra Pound poetry and new outboard engines.  That is natural - irresponsible, but entirely natural.

I don't think it will have much effect on the private practice of medicine, so that is a good thing. Hospitals will like it: they will get paid. And people should like it, because it keeps politics out of medical care...hopefully.

Read Kesler's piece here. This could be ground-breaking.

PS: Welcome, HH readers. Check out our blog - we are sure you will want to bookmark us! Our April Fool's Day satires were pretty good.

PSS: Dissent from a Massachusetts reader - scroll up.

Posted by The Old Doc in Politics at 06:44 | Comments (6) | Trackbacks (0)

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What are you guys smoking over there? Here I am in Massachusetts, without health insurance, and with a family of four, and all that has happened is on top of having to pay full freight for my family's doctor bills, I get fined $1000.00 for the privelege.

I don't want your stinking welfare greenstamp department of motor vehicle government cheese copay paperwork foodstamp prepaid doctor tax charity ward let a millionflowers bloom supervision of my family's medical situation, thank you very much.

Catastrophic medical insurance is currently illegal in Massachusetts. All they had to do is allow me to purchase what I could get if I lived 50 miles west, which is REAL LIVE INSURANCE, that is, they would pay if something unexpected, substantial, and expensive happened. And it would cost me a couple hundred bucks a month. But no, I have to pay full freight for every lamebrain thing that every knucklehead who has a job with benefits wants tax free, like gym memberships and aromatherapy and acupuncture and reiki massage and "mental health," ie, I'm a miserable failure as a human being and I want to talk to another miserable failure that went to community college for psychology about it, at great expense. Oh, yes, let's not forget all middle age men that need free blue pills because what a mean spirited thing it would be middle age men didn't wander the earth with extra free hardons.

And so "insurance" becomes paying in advance for others to get what they don't need or deserve, to the point where "Insurance" costs 1200 a month and if something catastrophic did happen, would bankrupt me anyway, because instead of paying $50 for an office visit for an imaginary ailment, but having a real catastrophe paid for, the powers that be would prefer paying $5 dollars copay for an office visit to their yogurt enema wellness healer, but have to chip in 20% for cancer therapy, which would bankrupt anybody that has to worry about the cost of health insurance in the first place.

So you're telling me that it could have been worse. And I' m telling you it will be, because if you think it's gonna stop here, you're nuts.
#1 sippicancottage (Link) on 2006-04-05 12:24 (Reply)
whew!
believe me, I hear you.
let me take another look before I say more, OK?
#2 the doc on 2006-04-05 12:36 (Reply)
Not too bad in theory but whenever government gets in volved, be it state or federal, things tend to get real stupid real fast.
#3 Santay on 2006-04-05 12:39 (Reply)
A Home Run for Romney?

Doubtful.....

A Mormon for socialized medicine (which this plan is) wouldn't even fly in Utah.

Flap is happy to NOT be living in Taxachusetts.
#4 Flap (Link) on 2006-04-05 14:20 (Reply)
"Like with car ownership - if you own a body, you have to insure that darn thing yourself so you don't dump your maintenance costs directly onto everyone else."

Except auto insurance is all about paying the other guy when you cause damage or injury with your car. It is still up to you to decide if you want to buy insurance to cover your own losses......
#5 Steve on 2006-04-05 17:56 (Reply)
I don't believe this is socialized medicine. It is private insurance and private doctors. It will say tax dollars that new go to subsidize real socialized medicine (when most people are uninsured I think the rest of the system, the rest of the people, pays.

As a self-employed business owner since 1984, I can tell you that the cost of $250 per year per employee is peanuts. That is about one months cost for group plan insurance. It is a very good deal. Far better than any of the alternatives out there in the world it seems to me.
#6 CARL LOEBER (Link) on 2006-04-06 01:24 (Reply)

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