In talking to people “in the know” around Washington we’ve come to find out that the new Democratic government isn’t going to be going after Health Savings Accounts any time soon. Why? For one thing they are gaining popularity each and every day. For another, universal health care isn’t working.
To much fanfare from both right and left in 2006, Massachusetts became the first state in the nation to require all residents to buy health insurance. A new state health insurance clearinghouse was created, with taxpayers subsidizing those who couldn’t afford to buy coverage. Then Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican, promised that “every uninsured citizen in Massachusetts will soon have affordable health insurance.” Yet just two years later, Romney’s much-heralded “solution” — touted by many as the model for a national program — has become an embarrassing flop.
Instead of making health insurance more affordable, this program has made it more expensive. The law to cover everyone has made up costing everyone an extra 56 percent, but that’s not the worst of it.
Small businesses with more than 10 employees were required to provide health insurance or pay an extra fee to subsidize uninsured low-income residents, yet the overall costs of the program increased more than $400 million — 85 percent higher than original projections. To make up the difference, payments to health care providers were slashed, so many doctors and dentists in Massachusetts began refusing to take on new patients. In the state with the highest physician/patient ratio in the nation, some people now have to wait more than a year for a simple physical exam.
This is clearly not what anyone had in mind and should be a pretty strong indicator to the Obama administration that universal health care has a long, long way to go before it ever works in this country. For now, we’ll take our HSAs.
Tags: Health Savings Account, hsa, Obama, universal health care
