Single-Payer Health Insurance coming to Massachusetts.

[SirNitram]

Or so proclaim the people.

A nice thing to hear in the wake of Prop 8. We'll see how this plays out.. It could encourage Obama to skip the incrementalism he has advocated before.

[Gandalf]

Good stuff. At the very least, it's a small step in the right direction.

How likely is it that similar blue states might adopt a similar measure?

[Darth Yoshi]

*whistles* That's an overwhelming yes vote. Once this gets off the ground, then there's no way for detractors to say it won't work, even ignoring the rest of the world.

[Guardsman Bass]

What they'd have to do is get some type of exemption from Medicare/Medicaid/SCHIP that would allow them to pool the funding from those programs going into Massachusetts and disburse along the lines of a prospective single-payer plan.

Needless to say, if it actually works out, this will be a landmark in the battle for universal health insurance. One thing confused me about that, though; it looked like it said a bunch of state houses said yes to instructing the representatives to push for it, but it wasn't a state-wide initiative (which would have drawn national attention). What's going on?

[Guardsman Bass]

*whistles* That's an overwhelming yes vote. Once this gets off the ground, then there's no way for detractors to say it won't work, even ignoring the rest of the world.

What they'd probably try to do is dilute it, saying "Well, I guess universal health insurance is a good goal, and Massachusetts has done well - but that's Massachusetts. We here out in Utah (which I'm citing because the current governor at least likes the idea of pushing towards affordable/universal health insurance in the state) think we personally need a plan based on 'conservative, market principles' (they actually said exactly that, IIRC)."

Mind you, this is all dependent on whether or not single-payer gets effectively implemented in Massachusetts.

[The Grim Squeaker]

I see that medical Marijuana has also been approved. I take it that SDN is now moving to Massachusetts?

[The Original Nex]

I'm not suggesting that the whole state wouldn't have the same results but this ballot initiative was neither on all the county ballots, nor is it a binding resolution. It's a suggestion for the local state legislators. But it certainly is telling of popular opinion in Massachusetts, which didn't even vote that resoundingly for Obama or Kerry.

[RedImperator]

I don't see how a single state could pay for single-payer health insurance on its own. At the very least, I'd imagine some kind of interstate compact would be necessary to pool more buying power.

[Guardsman Bass]

I don't see how a single state could pay for single-payer health insurance on its own. At the very least, I'd imagine some kind of interstate compact would be necessary to pool more buying power.

They'd certainly have to combine their own funding with federal funding (I mentioned an exemption they'd have to get on the current government insurance plans), but they're already forking over millions on the health care system that was set up in Romney's time.

[CmdrWilkens]

I don't see how a single state could pay for single-payer health insurance on its own. At the very least, I'd imagine some kind of interstate compact would be necessary to pool more buying power.

If we take the 2007 census estimate there are roughly 6.5 million people in the Commonwealth so that's a pretty decent bit of buying power. If the state were to, essentially, establish itself as an HMO, require corporations with healthcare benefits to pay into the system for local employees, get the same from the Federal government/Medicare, then possible require all businesses to pay out a payroll tax while also requiring all licensed health care providers in the state to accept the state run HMO it would be do-able.

[Guardsman Bass]

Mass-Care (an organization pushing for single-payer in Massachusetts) has a couple of reports on this type of thing on their website.

[Guardsman Bass]

I wonder how you would implement something like this. The best way would probably be to go through the Legislature; having it set up as an up-or-down proposition would guarantee that it would draw major national attention in a bad way (aka massive funding flowing in for and against the measure, plus lots of horse-race-obsessed media coverage about things like how Martha the Vineyard Owner thinks that single-payer will be worse managed than her Blue Cross Blue Shield).