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Fla. looks to Mass. for health care advice PDF Print E-mail
Written by KELLI KENNEDY   
Wednesday, 23 January 2013

rick-scott_web.jpgFORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) _ Two Massachusetts experts are giving Florida lawmakers starkly different opinions about how the health care law has impacted their state.

A Senate committee tasked with implementing the federal health overhaul met in Tallahassee Tuesday to examine Massachusetts' experience with the law.

Massachusetts laid the groundwork for the federal health law with its 2006 health care initiative and is currently the only state with an individual mandate.

One expert said the number of uninsured residents fell by two-thirds and premiums dropped. But another urged lawmakers not to expand Medicaid because it depresses economic activity and eliminates jobs.

Lawmakers must decide whether to extend Medicaid coverage to roughly 900,000 residents and whether to partner with the federal government on a state health exchange or allows the feds to run it alone.

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Massachusetts RomneyCare victim
written by Dennis Byron, January 24, 2013
This article is kind of sketchy as to who said what to whom but people of Florida, get the facts before you buy into anything you hear about the implementation of RomneyCare (which became Obamacare) in Massachusetts.

1. Yes the number on insured went down but no one except the Kool Aid drinkers thinks it went down 66%. We know the actual number; it was around 400,000. It went down because those 400,000 people got free insurance. The real mystery here in Massachusetts why the remaining 300,000 -- most of whom are entitled to free insurance to -- don't take it

2. Premiums did not drop except for approximately 40,000 people out of 6,500,000 people in Massachusetts. And their premiums only dropped for one year. We have the highest premiums in the world (but very good healthcare too) and the premiums have almost doubled -- even for the 40,000 who got the one-year reprieve -- since RomneyCare was begun

3. Only about 30,000 people in Massachusetts out of 6,500,000 buy insurance on our exchange. Don't waste your money on it

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