Azer: "Massachusetts has had its own healthcare system for a few years now. Obama's healthcare plan is based on theirs, with modifications.
Me: "Oh, I didn't know that."
Azer: "If it were up to me, I would take what works and implement it across the country, and then run the modified version in a single state to see how it fares. Don't immediately roll out the modifications to the entire country! Run a 2% experiment first."
Me: [lol] "That's very wise."
To be more accurate, each state regulates its own healthcare insurance system (i.e. no nationwide marketplace).
ReplyDeleteThe Massachusetts healthcare "plan," ironically was passed the help of former Republican presidential candidate and former governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney - which comes the closest to universal healthcare coverage at 98% the state (the highest coverage of any state in the nation).
I wouldn't necessarily say that the House & Senate versions of healthcare reform are based on Massachusetts' plan, but there are overlaps.
The reform that Obama, the House & Senate Democrats are working on would prevent some past flaws that are "allowed" (or maybe considered loopholes?) by individual states - like exclusion based on pre-existing conditions, recision, etc.
A complete Federal "takeover" of healthcare across the United States is greatly exaggerated and based on falsehoods promoted by Republicans. In fact, the current proposals match quite closely to what the Republicans proposed in the 1990s in response to "HillaryCare," and does less than what Nixon proposed as a compromise with Senator Kennedy in the 1970s.
And the U.S. is far off from a single payer system and universal coverage. Even though countries like Taiwan have successfully implemented such a system in the mid-1990s (where prior, Taiwan had MUCH worse coverage than the U.S.) Check out http://to.pbs.org/aLfOR for more info. (And I'd hardly call Taiwan a socialist or Communist country)