Single-payer healthcare is the one way

[Mass]

Remember, this is about the MA healthcare system, the one that is the example for the reforms that most Democrats are proposing: privately based mandatory insurance.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/12/03/single_payer_healthcare_is_the_one_way/

Single-payer healthcare is the one way
By Michael Kaplan
December 3, 2007

ALONG WITH most residents of Massachusetts, I assumed that the Massachusetts Health Reform Law was going to allow my daughter to keep her health insurance coverage after she graduated from college. The Connector Authority specified that for two years of post- dependency status, a young adult could remain on a family policy. What a relief that was. She graduated this May and is in those early stages of becoming self-supporting.

When my wife's employer, Berkshire Health Systems, informed us that my daughter's coverage would end on Dec. 31 of this year, I was shocked. It turns out that the law requires only companies that pay health insurance premiums to give the extra two years of coverage. Those companies that self-insure are governed by federal law under ERISA and are not bound by this requirement. Self-insured companies pay the health insurance companies to administer the benefit, not to insure them. So our Blue Cross Blue Shield policy seems like an insurance policy, but it is not. Berkshire Health Systems insures itself, as do national companies that employ across state lines. Many large local employers are self-insured as well. These large companies do not have to pay the extra cost to cover dependents for those two more years.
...

Although the Commonwealth Care subsidized insurance is not tied to employment, coverage would be lost if she either started earning above a threshold amount or moved from Massachusetts, both likely events for a young graduate. And as a consequence of the loophole exempting many big employers from covering their employees' children for two post-college years, Commonwealth Care is likely to include more young people than expected.

This will create higher expenses for the state than originally projected, worsening the cost problem that that casts a shadow over the entire program.

...

As a physician and healthcare activist for many years, I was aware that this reform law was not a panacea and did nothing to control the rapidly rising costs of private insurance that force both employers and their employees to pay more in premiums, with the insured also paying more in higher copayments and deductibles. While the reform widened the safety net for some poor families, this safety net will shred if there is not a massive infusion of new money from the state or federal governments.

...

Michael Kaplan is a family physician and a member of Physicians for a National Health Plan and the board of directors of the Universal Health Care Education Fund.

[Breeze54]

1. But if the daughter gets a job, she'd

probably have access to health care at her employment.

Most of the poor were on Mass Health and have just been switched over, AFAIK

I know my sister was pissed off that my nephew is paying over $200.00 for coverage
through the new health insurance plan in MA and he had to go higher with his payment
to make sure that the bills were all actually paid. I don't know what plan he has.
If you make under $30K, then you qualify for the Commonwealth Care Plan, which has
no payments, depending on if you have dependents, etc.