Daily News Updates - Health Insurance News

Mass. Health, A Creator Explains, Pt.3 – ‘Free-riders’ problem solved.

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The frustration is, of course, the people who do abuse the system for the ‘free ride’. At this point, we don’t seem to have any meaningful statistics indicating who these people are. But the ‘invaluable’ lesson learned here is that the cost still has to be picked up by someone. It’s been shown to be picked up by ‘the rest of us consumers’, by the government and, even ‘eaten’ by the budgets of benevolent hospitals who still provide that care. So, here is the beauty of the Massachusetts’ plan. All residents are required to buy health insurance. Both categories of those that appropriate the ER for lack of health insurance are given appropriate justice. Those who abuse the system for a ‘free ride’ are forced to pay for health insurance. The other group who would pay for health insurance but can’t, because of cost or denial, is given the opportunity to buy it. Boom, problem solved. Now the unfair burden that was placed on ‘the rest of us consumers’, by the government and those benevolent hospitals goes away.

The way this is made possible, is that the poor (households “earning 300% of the federal poverty level”, or less) are provided with subsidized health insurance. This is administered by the state-level program called “Commonwealth Care.” Each household’s subsidy is adjusted to the amount they are able to pay toward their health insurance premium. The remainder of the premium is picked up by the ‘Connector’. The policy is issued by private insurance and the household is allow to choose who that is. It is not part of either Medicaid or Medicare.

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