Sally Pipes ("Intensive Care for RomneyCare," editorial page, Feb. 26) has made a cottage industry of bashing the Massachusetts health-care plan.
In making selective use of misleading data, she fails to mention that more than 60,000 previously uninsured Massachusetts residents now have health insurance since the law's passage in April 2006. Her claim that Massachusetts officials understated the costs associated with the health-care plan is simply wrong.
Gov. Romney's fiscal year 2007 budget recommendation allocated $200 million for health-care reform implementation and many of the other expenditures that she references are mostly associated with the normal annual increases to the state's Medicaid program.
Ms. Pipes further states that health insurers submitted bids for the new non-subsidized health insurance plans at an average $380 monthly premium. This figure was initially reported by the Boston Globe, and then corrected by that paper in a subsequent story that reported Massachusetts insurers have actually provided state regulators with health insurance plans priced in the mid-$200 monthly premium range, consistent with Gov. Romney's estimates.
State regulators are now debating the minimum creditable coverage requirements to comply with the state's individual mandate. These requirements will obviously affect monthly premiums and bears watching, as will other aspects of the law. As Gov. Romney has stated on numerous occasions, the Massachusetts health-care law is not perfect and will need adjustments based upon evidence. But the doom-and-gloom criticism from Ms. Pipes is unwarranted.
Tim Murphy
North Andover, Mass. (The author is former Massachusetts Secretary of Health and Human Services.)
and...
Sally Pipes uncovers the fatuity of legislators who try to compel citizens by force to buy insurance they cannot afford. The root of this problem rests with the fact that when politicians "mandate" something they cannot resist meddling and piling additional requirements on what they are mandating. They would put insurance within reach for far more people by eliminating the laundry list of coverage requirements, allowing high-deductible policies, and permitting competition from insurers in other states. Instead they favor more compulsion, regulatory requirements, government administrators and new agencies that will produce only higher insurance premiums and taxes.
Richard E. Ralston
Executive Director
Americans for Free Choice in Medicine
Newport Beach, Calif.
