RomneyCare, Then and Now

RomneyCare begat Obamacare. We believe states are the best "test tubes" for anything proposed on a national level, so if you want to get an idea how something such as Obamacrap is going to play out over time, see how it has performed at the state level.            

The folks at Kaiser Foundation have provided us with this nifty update on RomneyCare, 6 years later.

Since 2006 the residents of Massachusetts have:

• 94% of their population covered by health insurance 
• Witnessed increased access to health care
• Failed to control health care spending 
• Per capita health care spending is 15% higher than the national average
• Health care spending AND health insurance premiums are HIGHER than any other state in the country

Meanwhile, the number of citizens in taxpayer subsidized health insurance programs continue to rise.

• 158,000 low income families in non-Medicaid health insurance plans
• "Low income" is defined as less than 300% of the FPL (federal poverty level)
• Added 61,000 children to Medicaid and SCHIP rolls
• 1% of the citizens paid a fine for failure to comply with the individual mandate

And then there are the taxpayer funded subsidies . . .

• $1.3 billion from MA taxpayers to subsidize the cost of health insurance for low income individuals and families
• $26.75 billion from CMS paid over 3 years. For those not paying attention, the $26.75 billion came from you and me.

So there you have it. After 6 years nominal gains have been made in lowering the percentage of uninsured citizens (from 10% to 6%).

Health care costs, and premiums, continue to rise faster than the national average and health insurance premiums are the highest in the country.

In addition to premiums paid, taxpayers will chip in an extra $1.3 billion in NEW taxes for 2012 plus another roughly $8 billion from the rest of us.

The folks in D.C. call that spreading the wealth around.

At InsureBlog we call it that hopey-changey thing.

How is this working for you?