Reply #3: Mass got some right and some of it is still a work in progress

[TayTay]

The Mass plan suffers from not having a national component. (OTOH, MA got a lot of federal money to see how this program can operate and IF it can be a national model. The results are good/mixed.)

97% of MA residents are covered. This is a remarkable achievement by any standard. It was done with mandates and without the strictest of employer mandates. (Employers in MA pay $275 a year as a penalty if they don't pay into a health insurance program.) There has NOT been a big dumping of employees onto the State systems, as was feared.

BUT, the recession has hit this program as it has hit everywhere else. The loss of money to cover people is going to hurt and cause permiums to go up or services to be cut back. Or both.

On the whole the MA program was pretty good. I say this even though my own daughter was one of the folks who, for several odd reasons, fell through the cracks and hasn't had health insurance for a while.

BTW, I am four-square FOR mandates. I think that is an essential part of the program.

Excellent find on the Holland model. Germany has a public/private system as well that seems to work pretty well. Thanks for this!