Exploring the Pros & Cons of Massachusetts' New Mandatory Health Insurance Program

The good news is that, this week, the Senate is finally debating health care issues.

The dismal news is that Senate Republicans, of course, have presented a comprehensive plan that favors insurance companies, gives financial breaks to businesses offering that insurance, and radically limits health services available to consumers.

And if that's not enough....the Republican health care "plan" also overrides and voids ALL state laws setting minimum health care coverage and services

In other words, business as usual for fancy Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and his lobbyist-centric Senate cohorts.

Per AP, "Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) said the legislation marked 'a retreat from our commitment to cancer. It's a retreat from our commitment to diabetes. It's a retreat from our commitment to mental health parity.' " Some senators even believe that, under the Republican plan, many childhood immunizatons would be at risk.

On C-SPAN today, I watched parts of the Senate floor speeches by senators from both sides of the political aisle, and was most impressed by that of four-term Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM). But I digress....

Each and every senator who debated health care today mentioned Massachusetts' new Mandatory Health Insurance Program which was signed into law last month by Governor Mitt Romney. (This landmark legislation was also a political victory for Governor Romney as he ponders running for the 2008 Republican nomination for the presidency.)

The Massachusetts Mandatory Health Insurance program requires all citizens to obtain health insurance, just as most states now require drivers to obtain automobile liability coverage. Both houses of the state legislature strongly approved this ground-breaking legislation on a bipartisan basis. The program's ambitious aim is to cover 95% of the state's 500,000 uninsured within three years.

Massachusett's Mandatory Health Insurance program, which is slated to become effective on July 1, 2007, is touted as an innovative national model to address the needs of the more than 45 million Americans without health insurance. But the program has both avid supporters and passionate detractors which, surprisingly, are not merely driven by political party affiliation.

To empower you to be part of the national conversation on health care strategies for America, I 've read the fine print of this new program, and simplified it for your quick reading. Invest the few minutes it takes to read my new article, Pros & Cons of Massachusetts' Mandatory Health Insurance Program.

Pros & Cons of Massachusetts' Mandatory Health Insurance Program is written quite objectively because, truthfully, I can understand arguments both for and against the plan. And I understand why it drew bipartisan praise and disapproval in Massachusetts.

Read it and make up your own mind. Then let me know what YOU think.
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Be sure to read:
-- Profile of Senator Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico
-- Pros & Cons of Massachusetts' Mandatory Health Insurance Program
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