Houtopia: A Model For The Future?

April 04, 2006

A Model For The Future?

Wednesday's NY Times offers a fascinating story from Massachusetts, that should spur serious discussion about solving one of our nations most serious societal problems -- health care.

The number of uninsured Americans is somewhere between 45 and 50 million. As costs continue to skyrocket, the problem is growing at an alarming rate, as fewer and fewer families, small and mid-size businesses can afford coverage. Nowhere more pronounced is the problem than in Texas, where we have the dubious distinction of leading the nation in the number of uninsured.

Well, the Democratic-dominated Massachusetts state legislature has passed landmark legislation giving health coverage to nearly all Bay State residents -- legislation that Republican Governor and presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has said he will sign.

Rather than the single-payer system, so often pilloried by conservatives as "socialized medicine", the Massachusetts plan is one, as the article notes, that was "hammered out with proposals and input from state Democratic legislators; Mr. Romney, a Republican; Senator Edward M. Kennedy, a Democrat; insurers; academics; businesses; hospitals; and advocates for the poor, including religious leaders."

It requires those who can afford insurance to purchase it, or else face tax penalties, and offers a sliding scale for individuals, based on ability to pay. As one academic notes, "it's not the typical Massachusetts/Taxachusetts, oh-just-crazy-liberal plan."

Whether the specifics of this plan would work in Texas remains to be seen, but it clearly offers a path toward getting one of this country's greatest social dilemnas -- health care for all -- on the right track.

Posted by houtopia at April 4, 2006 11:42 PM