Results tagged “obamacare” from Eagle Forum Collegians

Policymakers are currently trying to achieve universal coverage through a mandate requiring every individual to buy health insurance. This mandate has caused much controversy far and wide. The question is: will this mandate result in universal coverage?

Perhaps the most common argument in favor of insurance mandates is in reference to liability car insurance. Though the level of insurance varies by state, 48 states require liability insurance. Even in lieu of a mandate to by liability insurance, 15% of drivers are still on the road uninsured.

Policymakers had an advantage in considering the effects of mandates that most paid no attention to—Massachusetts care. In 2006, Governor Mitt Romney signed into law a mandate requiring individuals to buy health coverage, else they lose their personal income tax reduction, if their employers do not provide medical insurance.

Though 350,000 (of 550,000 to 715,000) previously uninsured Massachusetts citizens had enrolled by the summer of 2008, about half of them had chosen Commonwealth Care, a heavily subsidized free insurance program for adults who did not have access to government-sponsored programs or employer insurance. 

Not only are there still uninsured people in Massachusetts, but the costs of the program are bankrupting the state. Lawmakers greatly underestimated the costs. 

No, worries. The taxpayers will take care of it! The bill to taxpayers was: 

--$133 million in 2007

--$647 million in 2008

--projected to be $869 million to $1.1 billion

Governor Mitt Romney had predicted the cost to be only $125 million a year.

Though about 262,000 took advantage of the free programs offered by the state, only 18,122 enrolled in the government’s full price, unsubsidized Commonwealth Choice program. The question is—was universal coverage attained?

No. Five percent are still uninsured, and the Massachusetts economy has suffered greatly.

If a government mandate will truly “fix” a faulty system, why do we not end world hunger, homelessness, and poverty? 

The answer is simple: mandates will not “fix” these things.