medpundit |
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Sunday, July 01, 2007Massachusetts is deliberately taking things slowly. In 2008, the penalty for those not insured will be a loss of state tax exemption, worth about $219; later the penalty will be up to half of a monthly insurance premium for each month a person is uninsured. Also, while any insurance is acceptable at first, by January 2009, everyone must have drug coverage. There is concern that there will be about 60,000 people who are not poor enough to qualify for state aid to buy insurance and yet who will also not be able to afford the premiums themselves. So why are they mandating drug coverage? Wouldn't it make sense to drop the drug coverage mandate so that there will be more affordable policy options for those 60,000? posted by Sydney on 7/01/2007 01:36:00 PM 5 comments 5 Comments:I'm not following your causal assessment. How exactly will dropping the mandate provide coverage for these 60,000 persons? Isn't it much more likely that such a class -- who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but who cannot afford private insurance -- would be shut out from coverage anyway> By 2:57 PM , atWhen an insurance company has to offer drug coverage, it means that the policies are more expensive. If they had the option to offer a policy that didn't cover drugs, then they could offer lower-cost plans which could make them affordable to at least some, if not all, of those people who can't afford the current coverage may be able to afford the cheaper insurance without drug coverage.
Furthermore, it's a nice feeling to think that one is in a "low risk" category for health complications. So it'd be nice to "reward" those conscientous people everywhere who don't smoke, exercise, drink in moderation and take their baby aspirin, with lower premiums. Too bad for the folks with genetic risks, I guess. By 2:44 PM , at
There are two problems with dropping drug coverage- one, some studies show coverage can reduce overall costs through decreased hospitalizations. I believe that we will definitely see this with Medicare. By 2:47 PM , atMy posts were reversed, sorry! By 2:48 PM , at |
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