Massachusetts has accomplished the improbable: It got Democrats and Republicans to agree on how to provide nearly every resident with health insurance. And it did so without boosting taxes or pushing aside private health plans. Other states are trying to close the gap too. Vermont’s Republican Gov. Jim Douglas and the Democratic majority in the Legislature took similar action.
The Massachusetts compromise, spearheaded by outgoing Gov. Mitt Romney (R), marks a marriage of competing visions for health care reform shaping state policies around the nation. Democrats stress the need to move toward health coverage for all. Republicans promote putting consumers in control. What Massachusetts did was to fuse these philosophies.
While Massachusetts is hailed as a trailblazer, even states with less ambitious goals are setting out to repair the country’s broken health care system. The changes go beyond taxpayer-funded Medicaid programs for the poor and disabled. States are expanding medical coverage for the working uninsured, rewarding patients who develop healthy habits and prodding private industry to offer greater health benefits.
States feel the brunt of spiraling medical costs in their bottom line. Plus, there’s powerful political pressure for states to address the problem of the uninsured. The Census Bureau found that nearly 47 million Americans — one in six — went without health insurance in 2005. When it began keeping track in 1987, 31 million Americans — fewer than one in eight — lacked coverage.
Massachusetts’ new policy aims to cover 460,000 uninsured residents by July. Some 106,000 are already eligible for Medicaid care but weren’t enrolled. Another 150,000 will get help buying a private health insurance policy, subsidized by a portion of the $1 billion the state now uses to reimburse hospitals for charity care.
The remaining 204,000 must buy private insurance through their employers or through a new state agency. That group includes many uninsured workers who consider private coverage too expensive or who are young, healthy and willing to risk going without. They will face tax penalties if they don’t buy a policy: loss of their personal exemption, and by 2008, a penalty equal to half of what health insurance premiums would have cost. Employers who don’t provide health insurance will face annual penalties, too — $295 per worker.
A new state agency — the Commonwealth Care Health Insurance Connector — will create a market for private insurers to compete for the new customers and offer benefits otherwise tough to find. For example, a seasonal worker could keep the same plan all year, even if he’s working for two different employers, building houses in summer and plowing roads in winter.
Workers using the Connector can pay for coverage with pretax dollars, giving them the same tax benefits as workers with employer-provided insurance.
At a signing ceremony in Boston’s historic Faneuil Hall last April, Romney called the result a once-in-a-generation feat achieved “without a government takeover and without raising taxes.” The former businessman, who is mulling a White House bid in 2008, hopes the Bay State’s health care plan will be a signature issue.
The Vermont approach shares many elements with Massachusetts’ reforms: premium assistance for the working uninsured, enhanced Medicaid benefits and an opportunity for all residents to buy insurance through the state, at premiums ranging from $60 to $135 a month. It also penalizes businesses that don’t offer health insurance.
Vermont hopes to cut costs by encouraging diabetics and heart patients to keep up with treatment. And it wants to allow HMOs to give discounts to policyholders who quit smoking or take steps to address chronic conditions. Maine’s Democratic Gov. John Baldacci is rethinking how to pay for a year-old program designed to move his state toward universal coverage.
When the Dirigo Health initiative was launched in 2005, Baldacci argued that savings from driving down health costs could be used to insure more residents. But health insurers say he overestimated the savings. They sued when the state tried to collect $44 million it claims to have wrung out of the health care system. The court challenge failed, but newly re-elected Baldacci has agreed to take another look at how to fund the program.
- After narrowly winning re-election, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) challenged the Democratic Legislature to extend health benefits to more than 70,000 uninsured children. He also signaled he was open to a Massachusetts-style mandate that all residents be insured.
- California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) promised to make access to health care a major focus of his second term after vetoing a move by the Democratic-controlled Legislature last year to jettison private health insurance and switch to a government-run health system for all. “Socialized medicine is not the solution to our state’s health care problems,” Schwarzenegger wrote in his veto message. Labor unions that supported the state takeover, including the Service Employees International Union and the California Nurses Association, have vowed to bring the issue before voters in a 2008 ballot initiative if Schwarzenegger fails to act.
- Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) rolled out his AllKids initiative, which lets parents buy coverage from the state for their children, even for illegal immigrant children who are ineligible for Medicaid. The price depends on the parents’ income. Blagojevich has stressed that AllKids allows parents of all incomes whose children have chronic diseases to buy coverage that might be unaffordable in the private market.
- Pennsylvania Gov. Edward Rendell (D) convinced his Legislature to adopt a comparable Cover All Kids initiative, and Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle (D) is backing a similar plan. Democratic Govs. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas and Christine Gregoire of Washington state also called for universal coverage of children.
- Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D) is seeking federal approval for her $1 billion plan to use Medicaid funds to help Michigan’s uninsured buy private health coverage.
The federal government gave a boost to healthy living initiatives in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. It allows states to increase benefits for Medicaid clients with healthy lifestyles, an emphasis meant to improve both patient’s health and states’ bottom lines. As a result:
• West Virginia now makes people in a Medicaid pilot program agree to follow such simple rules as showing up for doctor’s appointments and getting their children immunized. If they comply, they qualify for extra benefits, such as mental health services and greater prescription drug coverage.
• Kentucky plans to offer expanded benefits for patients who faithfully follow disease-management programs. For example, someone who keeps up with treatment for asthma or obesity could earn credits toward dental and vision care.
• Idaho offers Medicaid recipients a medical savings account. Healthy behavior can earn them money to cover smoking-cessation or weight-loss classes, among other things.
• In a pilot project in two Florida counties, Medicaid beneficiaries with healthy habits can earn up to $125 a year toward over-the-counter medicines and other medical supplies.
Three out of five Americans receive health insurance through their employer, but that number is slipping. States are trying both carrots and sticks to slow the trend.
Arizona, Kansas, Montana and West Virginia recently began offering tax credits to small businesses that offer insurance to their employees. Arkansas, New Mexico and Oklahoma offer small businesses and the uninsured the chance to buy discounted coverage through the state.